Part of why this film remains a pleasure for me is the cool soundtrack. Sure I'm 41 years old but I'm an immature 41, and really love the music in this film. See if they had used a bunch of shitty cutesy pop music in this, it would have been another crappy chick flick. I detest crappy chick flicks. I want to herd them all into the middle of a field and shoot them all, firing squad.
But when "Some Girl" begins, with that infamous opening song "Fire, Water, Burn", I just sit back and enjoy the film. The song is what does it for me. The song was and still is the insurance that this film became a hit with all walks of viewers. Girls, guys, middle age people (like me) and maybe the twentysomethings that it was truly aiming for. The only people I've seen that didn't really take to it are teenagers. This film seems above their head, and it's already too "dated" for them to be into now.
I've already tried to introduce this movie to my 14 year old neice, hoping to gain insight into the dating habits of her and her friends, who are but a few years younger than the characters in this story...but she was bored with the "adult content...and besides, nothing fun really happens."
In spite of this being about "young" people, the content actually is a little too adult, too sophisticated, and too subtle, for people who crave action flicks. If you have the right crowd, you might have a nice evening watching this film, and it may, as it has with many viewers and reviewers, stimulate nostaligia, memories of your own difficult "dating" years.
Deep in the heart of this film is a girl trying to make those memories and milestones for herself. She doesn't want the string of bad memories piling up at her feet from all of the meaningless quickie relationships with shallow guys. What she is looking for continues to elude her. I wanted to see her win the battle she was fighting, but as Mary has said, Claire has a few too many obstacles in her path, the biggest of which is her own set of insecurities and bad habits. Too often, we don't realize, or even want to realize that in order to have a different outcome, maybe we need to change our strategies, our methods, maybe even our preferences. Many women can't bring themselves to do these drastic changes, and honestly, it's less scary to fall in love with the devil you know.
Claire indeed has a problem with hitting the bottle. It's not just social drinking. She even drinks alone, and since it's a depressant, she is giving herself more to cry about instead of just getting up and getting on with it. Chad as it turns out, is not the guy she wants, but just another empty fling going nowhere fast. He and April deserve each other. I love Juliette Lewis but I absolutely hate her character in this film. Ditto for Jenn played by Pamela Segall Adlon. I know I said somewhere that I liked her, but when I think about how much of a bitch she was to Jason...Suzanne the girl who moves to Italy at the end of the film? She was a bitch too. Why lead the boyfriend on like that? Now I realize the only female I can bring myself to like is Claire. Neal is the one dude that seemed like a wimp. He should have told April to kiss his ass long ago, but no he just lets her treat him like shit and then whines about it. Jason is a great character. The other great character in the film is a small role for Adam Goldberg. Which is another thing that makes this film funny and cool and watchable for years to come. Not just the music, but the dialogue of Goldberg and Ribisi when they were arguing over the parking places at the party. Improv more than likely, but it's what saved this film from really being a tired chick flick.
Back to SOME GIRL
some girl