As Cool as I Am
2013 · Directed by Max Mayer
Original language: English
- comedy
- drama
The story
In a small American town, 16-year-old Lucy is left to largely raise herself, managing the household while her immature mother works and her father is away in Canada for months at a time. As her parents' emotional distance intensifies, Lucy explores her own sexuality with her childhood best friend, Kenny.
What it’s like
Unshowy, lived-in small-town American look: ordinary kitchens and cluttered living rooms, sun-washed streets and parked cars, with little stylisation and a rough independent-film finish. The mood is wry and wistful, a coming-of-age comedy-drama with an undertow of loneliness, the feel of a grey afternoon on the sofa with the television murmuring. Pacing is loose and conversational, scenes allowed to sprawl into awkward pauses, with humour coming from teenage bluntness and adult ineptitude. Its emotional register swings between deadpan and raw: a teenage girl quietly takes over the running of her home while the adults around her drift, and a close friendship slowly tips into something she must navigate on her own. Intensity is significant and worth knowing in advance. Sexual content, a rape storyline, bullying and teenage pregnancy are present, handled with seriousness rather than spectacle, and there is no gore. It is not gentle and can unsettle. For people who want an honest, character-driven coming-of-age film with dry humour and a melancholy feel, and who are prepared for heavy subject matter.
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