Thursday, November 26, 2009

Not your typical romantic comedy

Despite its unfortunate title and low-budget look, the upcoming film Randomocity has a potentially heartbreaking premise: Boy meets girl, boy falls in love, girl and boy start dating -- and girl gets sexually assaulted by a stranger. Subsequently, boy tries to convince girl that their relationship is still worth pursuing.

Rape is a tremendously difficult thing for film to explore. If a filmmaker depicts it graphically, accusations of exploitation are sure to follow, and sometimes they're quite justified. If, on the other hand, a director portrays rape euphemistically, there's a real risk of trivializing it. And treating the subject with the right amount of perspective and sensitivity -- well, I don't envy the directors and screenwriters who try. Randomocity's trailer suggests an ambitious film that may run into some tonal problems:



Clearly, the movie wants to take rape, and its effects on both the survivor and her relationships, seriously. Yet it isn't grim and humorless; its sense of humor, whether or not it's to your taste, is evident. Will first-time writer-director Tyler Lee Allen (who also plays Ashley) make this combination of comic and tragic elements work? I don't have the highest hopes, but I admire his moxie.

1 comment:

Anna "Flamingo" said...

I catch your blog while surfing and typically enjoy reading it, however, gotta disagree with you about the title: I LOVE it :)

Randomocity is one of those words that's used occasionally in internet slang, but has never really been given an actual definition. Also, I've never seen it used in any respected media outlets. Really there's nothing unfortunate about it except for some obscurity that a little thought can accommodate for: Random, Anxiety, Velocity, City... any of those words could come into play I'm guessing.

I can say that I am more interested in seeing Randomocity than many of the films I've seen trailers for recently. Soundtrack please :)