52 Films by Women Vol 5. 19. SOUNDTRACK TO SIXTEEN (Director: Hillary Shakespeare)
At the end of the micro-budget,
London-set teenage comedy, Soundtrack
to Sixteen, a credit dates the
film as 2013 - it was filmed between July and August of that year. After an
extensive period of post-production, it is receiving a limited UK cinema
release in 2020. It can take seven years for a woman film director to go from
her first to her second film. A seven-year post-production period is
practically unheard of. During this time, director Hillary Shakespeare, who
also co-produced and co-wrote the film with her younger sister Anna-Elizabeth,
worked towards a PhD at the Oxford Robotics Institute. Anna-Elizabeth studied
for a degree in German literature. They have since shot a second (micro-budget)
film, Much Ado, a contemporary adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing involving a rugby team, currently in
post-production.
Are the Shakespeare
sisters merely playing at being filmmakers or do they ‘have’ something? The
evidence suggests the latter. The film has two relatable if not always likeable
central characters, sixteen-year-old Maisy (Scarlett Marshall) and Ben (Gino
Wilson) who attend the same private Sixth Form college in Central London. It
also has some not-so-relatable situations – travelling on a London bus in one’s
pyjamas. Although conventional in many respects – the pair bump into each other
in the opening sequence after Maisy stalks a boy, Nathan Beals-Harper (George
Fanzio) for whom she has a crush – it has a fair number of laughs and
completely wins you over. Who doesn’t want to see a girl and a boy share their
first kiss, even if the actors playing them have just eaten a Chinese take-away
before filming the scene? Or a trick or treat scene in which Maisy and her
younger sister are offered toothbrushes?
There is, however, a
spectre that hangs over it, that of the British (Channel Four) television
series, The Inbetweeners, which aired between 2008 and 2010 and also
dealt with characters in between childhood (still playing with toys) and young
adulthood (going to parties and listening to cool music). The difference is in tone
- The Inbetweeners milks humour out of the most humiliating and
explicit forms of embarrassment - and spirit – there isn’t a sympathetic
character in The Inbetweeners. Soundtrack
to Sixteen doesn’t feel cynical
or lacking in human kindness. When she isn’t chasing Nathan, Maisy enlists her
best friend to help her bury her mouse, rather than flush it down the toilet.
Maisy’s pet mouse ate his brother, which is symptomatic of not mouse-on-mouse cannibalism,
rather Maisy not feeding it enough.
Maisy plays with her
younger sister, Holly (Holly Wilderspin) indulging in games of Witching School
with Sylvanian Families and eating invisible soup. Only she is easily
distracted by her phone, the model of which dates the movie somewhat. Maisy
gets a shock when her best friend and two others in their group get invited to
a party; she is left out. In anger, Maisy switches tables and hangs out with
another group of girls, one of whom liked her in primary school but essentially
only sees her as a cheap taxi service – Maisy’s father drives them to a party.
Ben is an
interesting character. Considered smart at GCSE level, he finds himself
struggling at AS Level, to the extent that even the boy who copies his homework
gets a higher mark than he does. This tips Ben over the edge. During one
particularly dull lesson in English literature, in which his thoughts are
spoken as voiceover, he stands up and utters a swear word. He is sent out of
the classroom as a result.
Accepting that he is
never going to get three grade-A’s, Ben rebels, coaxing his three friends into
forming a band – only they are tuneless and rubbish. He deliberately neglects
his Physics and tries to appear cool. He tries to get another boy to tell him
the address of an upcoming house party, failing miserably. One of his group,
however, pays a girl for that information.
The party reveals
Maisy to be out of her depth, when being asked to dance with her companions and
then in a game of ‘never have I ever’. Maisy pretends to have seen a naked man
and names him as Nathan Beals-Harper. However, when asked to describe his physique,
Maisy is caught in a lie and runs out to join the toilet line, where she feels
less judged. There she meets Ben. They have stuff in common. However, his
companions, one of whom is semi-conscious in alcohol-induced delirium (aka
sh-t-faced), force his early departure.
They seem destined
not to meet each other again until Maisy attends a pyjama party where she is
not allowed to share the bed. Instead, she is asked to sleep on the floor in
the corner. She is not even allowed to join in the conversation. Humiliated,
Maisy leaves in her pyjamas, catches a bus and sits at the back of the top deck
with Ben.
The use of voiceover
to illustrate both Ben and Maisy’s thoughts works well, especially in the
opening when they both see the same passing girl and come to different
conclusions – Ben thinks she looks like a badger. The film is about teenage
anxieties, minus body odour, facial hair and pimples, and it feels honest – if,
that is, girls really do worry about whether they will ever kiss a boy. The
film also uses caption cards to illustrate the passing months. There is a
humorous montage in which teacher after teacher explains that sixth form is
much harder than GCSEs, to the extent that the final teacher, repeating the
same sentence, writes it down.
Many incidents turn
Ben into a rebel, not least getting a ‘C’ for his explanation of magnetism – he
subsequently tears up his presentation and flushes it down the toilet. His work
does resemble that of a Year 8 student; even the drawing seems childish. Ben
knows that he comes across as a nerd, but he wants the grades to go with it, to
be able to study at a good university. His relationship with Maisy makes him
realise that being a rebel doesn’t suit him, though this specific story point
is not explicit - it may have ended up on the digital ‘cutting room floor’.
There is a good
scene in a library when Ben complains that boys at the next table are making
too much noise. One of the boys walks over and asks to look at Ben’s history
essay or at least his headings. Ben holds the essay to his chest and storms
out.
The title refers to
a compilation CD that Ben makes for Maisy, modelled on the CDs he made for
himself from the age of eleven, featuring the songs that defined his year. The
soundtrack of the film consists of songs donated royalty-free by upcoming
bands. The music doesn’t stand out; but don’t hold that against the movie.
Reviewed at
Prince Charles Cinema, Central London (Screen One), Saturday 14 March 2020,
14:45 screening
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