The Exploding Girl
Genre: Drama
Berlinale 2009, Separation, New York, Student, Epilepsy
A kind of long-distance relationship
What would Ivy (Zoe Kazan), probably without their mobile phone? With her friend Greg, the 20-year-old student communicates exclusively via their phone. It’s summer, she is on holiday, which she spent at home in New York and Greg is not with her. They do not have much say in their calls for. And so it is not surprising that Greg, the relationship soon ended – on the phone. Ivy spends most of his time alone or with her best buddy Al (Mark Rendall), who has settled during the holidays with her. Al, in which she often sees only her best friend, is actually the one you like best. Up to admit that it does not come easily. She noticed it every day a little more, but it does not seem right to love her best friend. Only at the very end of the film, the two come closer, if subtly touch the car her hands.
American director Bradley Rust Gray in The Exploding Girl tells a beautiful story about friendship between two young men on the threshold of adulthood. The title is somewhat misleading, because in Ivy puts an incredibly calm, almost stoic taken by nature. She takes things out as they are, without upset. She does not talk about their concerns. Neither Al nor find her mother – her only caregivers – that Greg has done with her. Even if stomach cramps and seizures they torment, she takes the left there.
Zoe Kazan is the granddaughter of director Elia Kazan (East of Eden). Her father is screenwriter Nicholas Kazan. She is a successful stage actress in New York and currently in several films like to see, including Revolutionary / Revolutionary Road by Sam Mendes and Rebecca Miller’s The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which can be seen in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. It’s a lot of fun to watch her in the role of Ivy, as she sleeps, laughs, walks, talks, or just hinträumt only to himself.
The Exploding Girl is a beautiful little film festival. Worth seeing if only because its main character Ivy. If we all had a bit of ivy in ourselves, life would be a lot more relaxed.
(Katrin Knauth)
Title: The Exploding Girl Country of production: USA Year of production: 2009 Length: 79 (Min) of material: Peripheral Film Distribution