Wes Anderson and Spike Jonz fans will love Rosemary Myers' Fantastic Birthday (originally Girl Asleep)!
Greta (the beautiful Bethany Witmore), soon to be 15 years old, is new to school. She is immediately spotted by Elliot, an adorably clumsy redhead; but also by the trio of cheerleaders as beautiful as they are creepy. It is with great fear that she thinks about her transition to adolescence. She would like not to leave her cozy cocoon of childhood. But his parents decide to organize a big party for this occasion. On D-Day, Greta gets lost in a dark and fantastic forest where she will have to face her greatest fears.
Irresistible kitsch
Greta is an introverted girl, who would rather stay in her room and make origami than look beautiful and wear a candy pink dress. Elliot doesn't have too many friends and says whatever comes to mind. All three cheerleaders wear the same clothes and revolve around a leader. The father has a huge mustache and glasses, is kind but a little heavy. The mother is a little crazy but presentable all the time, even when pedaling on her exercise bike. The hippie big sister dates a boy who flirts with his mother.
As you can see, the characters are more clichéd than each other: but this is precisely what allows the viewer to find himself more easily in the universe (and to keep smiling until the end).
On the side of the images, it is the humor and aesthetics of Wes Anderson that we find. From the first scene, we find ourselves immersed in this universe: a wide shot tightens on Greta and Elliot while in the background the middle students pass by doing crazy and absurd things. The inlaid choreographies (we could think of The Rocky Picture Show teen version) are done on an absolutely great soundtrack. Even the way of shooting is inspired by the seventies: it is a ratio 1:33 (original silent cinema) of the image that was chosen.
From theatrical staging to cinema
Fantastic Birthday is the first feature film by Rosemary Myers, the artistic director of an Australian theatre. The film was first tested on theatrical stage. In fact, many of the actors who played in the play are present in the film: the mother (Amber McMahon), the father (screenwriter Matthew Whittet) and Adam (Eamon Farren, Elliot in the play).
From this provenance emerges a certain plasticity of the sets and costumes. The inhabitants of the forest have almost homemade disguises. The staging is fun and childish. For example, temporal information is written directly on the school sign, a poster in Greta's room, or on a jar of chicken.
Behind all this dreamlike madness , however, hides a serious and universal message. The metaphor of the transition to adolescence is dark. A barrier separates the family home from the forest: it is a boundary between the known and the unknown. In the forest, Greta is chased by hungry monsters. Middle school students are as naïve as they are cruel. The heroine's entourage has a more or less evil double. Everyone will recognize themselves in Greta: we have all gone through the age where we must rediscover ourselves and question everything we know. And it's scary.
Like a surprising and refreshing fairy tale, Fantastic Birthday takes us back to our childhood. Through touching characters and an atypical second degree, the metaphor of adolescence, as dark as it is light, is precisely exploited. The aesthetic is original and zany, which might displease some. You can't please everyone!
Fantastic Birthday launches on March 22. The trailer:
