21 | April | 2014 | Through the Shattered Lens

So, I’ve fallen way behind on my posting. But let’s face it, I never really intended to make this a truly regular column. If I had to blame something, and let’s face it, blaming something besides myself is much more fun, I’d blame going to Anime Boston with site founder Arleigh. I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it? It kept me preoccupied for a time, and it’s a very convenient excuse. Hey Arleigh, where’s the rest of the Anime Boston AMVs?

Alright, now that the focus is taken off of me, I’ll come back to the last set I watched before I stopped actually posting, and that’s the final set of the anime Special A, or more informally known as S.A. This is based off a shojo manga, or manga made with girls in mind, by Maki Minami. It basically follows the exploits of Hikari Hanazono in her super rich and super privileged high school class consisting of the best of the best. Of course, Hikari comes from a very modest family, so naturally she is the hardest worker in the group because she knows what it’s like to not be born from a family that’s going to automatically give her an eight or nine figure inheritance.

And that in a large part is the problem I have with the show. It’s all about Rich People’s Problems. Yet another show showing us how rich people are just the same as us, they have all the problems us commoners have, just magnified because they’re rich! Yeah, sorry, not buying it. Frankly if I’m in line to inherit a couple hundred million dollars, then I don’t really care what sort of responsibilities I might have to deal with. Oh no, my parents want me to marry someone worth millions of dollars to make our family worth billions? Cry me a river.

That episode is just a taste of what they go through. Frankly, I don’t care about Rich People’s Problems. I don’t relate to it at all. Look, I don’t want my anime to be realistic. I want my heroes to kick ass an take names. I want them to struggle a bit, but come out winning in the end. I WANT SHINJI TO GET IN THE GODDAMN ROBOT!! Ahem. Sorry about that. Anyways, this show just did not resonate with me. Some of the side characters were quite interesting, such as the pairing of Megumi and Yahiro. Now that was interesting. Hikari and Kei? Couldn’t care less. It probably doesn’t help that Maki Minami doesn’t do a great job of drawing distinctive characters, and the anime reflects this. Yes, you can tell them apart, but they’re so similar that it can be hard at times. All in all, this comes across as a series drawn by someone who’s basically saying “wouldn’t it be awesome if you were a clueless normal girl who got to go to a super elite rich person school just because you were fairly smart, and the richest smartest boy in school fell in love with you?” Yes, yes it would, but that doesn’t make for a particularly compelling story, especially for people that just don’t get or care about rich people’s problems. I don’t care how much you want it to be true, rich people do not have the same troubles us thousandaires do, and nothing you do can convince me otherwise.

All in all, I say skip this series. The anime can be had for cheap, provided you don’t care about English dubs, and even if you want your dubs you can have it for half the price of the manga. The manga does expound a bit further upon the story than the anime (obviously) but the ending is completely obvious from the beginning, so there’s not much need to put yourself through it all. If you want to see a better story of Normal Girl in Rich Person School, then I totally recommend Ouran High School Host Club instead.

Dominique Swain in Tart

If you’ve watched Encore over the last few month, you may have come across a 2001 film called Tart. I did and, despite some pretty glaring flaws, I enjoyed the film. However, I then checked out a few of the reviews that have been posted online and I discovered that I may very well be the only person in the world who doesn’t hate this movie.

Tart is a coming-of-age story. Teenage Cat (Dominique Swain) lives in Manhattan with her divorced mother and her bratty younger brother. Cat attends an exclusive private school with her best friend Delilah (Bijou Phillips) and has a huge crush on William (Brad Renfro). After Delilah is expelled from school, Cat befriends the snobby Gracie (Mischa Barton) and starts to reinvent herself as one of the popular kids. Along with being popular comes drugs, sex, and, eventually, violence.

There’s no telling how many dirty old men were shocked to discover that DVD cover art is often misleading.

I will be the first to admit that a lot of the negative criticism of Tart is justified.

Is the film largely plotless? It is indeed but so is life.

Are all of the film’s adults presented as being one-dimensional jerks? Yes but then again, we are seeing them and their actions through the eyes of a teenage girl and, when you’re a teenager, most adults do seem to be jerks.

Does the film get a bit heavy-handed when it comes to dealing with casual anti-Semitism? It sure does but then again, anyone who thinks that anti-Semitism isn’t on the rise in this country obviously hasn’t been paying attention to the news.

Does the film’s melodramatic conclusion seem to come out of nowhere? Yes, it does. However, when you’re a teenager, everything eventually becomes a melodrama.

Does Brad Renfro seem to spend the entire film wishing he was somewhere else? Yes, he does. In many ways, his performance is painful to watch, both because his character is fighting the same battle with drugs that would ultimately cost Brad his life and the fact that he doesn’t appear to be all that invested in his performance. Watching the film, you’re struck by just how detached Renfro is from the material. It’s easy to criticize the lack of chemistry between Brad Renfro and Dominique Swain but then again, who hasn’t had a crush on a self-destructive bad boy? Who hasn’t thought that she — and she alone — could see something hidden away inside a damaged soul that only she could understand? Who hasn’t dreamed of understanding (and saving) an enigma? Sometimes, detachment is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Does Bijou Phillips play the same role that she seems to play every time she shows up on screen? Yes, she is playing another wild best friend here but then again, she plays the role well and who hasn’t had a friend who refused to conform?

Does Mischa Barton give a rather broad and over-the-top performance in this film? Yes, she does but then again …. well, sorry. I can’t really think of any way to turn that into a positive.

Shoplifting is fun!

And yet, despite all of the film’s many flaws, I couldn’t dislike Tart. Tart is one of those films that totally misses the big picture and but manages to get so many of the small details right that I couldn’t help but relate to Dominique Swain’s character.

It was the little scenes that worked for me, like the scene where Cat shoplifts for the first time and runs out of the store knowing she’s done something wrong and yet still feeling exhilarated to have gotten away with something or the painfully (for this viewer, at least) accurate scenes of Cat waiting for her father to call on her birthday and then spitefully lashing out at her mother when he doesn’t. I’ve had best friends like Delilah and it was impossible for me not to wince a little at the scenes where Cat and Delilah argue over Cat’s new friends because, seriously, I’ve been there. Even the scene during the opening credits, in which Cat’s skirt is blown upward just as she happens to walk by the boy she likes, felt painfully familiar. Who hasn’t been embarrassed in front of a crush?

It’s the little details that allowed me to relate to this massively flawed film. It’s the little details that make Tart a guilty pleasure.