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Shannon Murphy
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
Terminal teens have become fairly common in contemporary young-adult romances, from The Fault in Our Stars (Shailene Woodley has cancer, falls in love with Ansel Elgort), to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Olivia Cooke has leukemia, falls in love with Thomas Mann), to Five Feet Apart (Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse both have cystic fibrosis, fall in love with each other).
To make a movie as good as Babyteeth requires a touch of creative daring, a willingness to take risks and stretch the boundaries of a genre – in this case, the ‘doomed teen’ sub-genre, represented by movies such as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) and The Fault in Our Stars (2104).
The plot is a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox of the rote and routine teen illness stories that have become the norm across the past decade, with Babyteeth playing like an adult, riskier version of The Fault in Our Stars or Restless or Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl.
The Fault In Our Stars (adapted from the wildly popular John Green novel of the same name) led the pack, but others like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, If I Stay, Five Feet Apart, Midnight Sun, and Everything, Everything were all variations of the same oddly specific trope that raked in the dough at the box office.
From Josh Boone's The Fault in Our Stars to Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's Me and Earl and the Dying Girl to Stella Meghie's Everything Everything , this "boy meets girl with a terminal illness" phenomenon has evolved into something of a genre all to itself, exploring—with different degrees of success and sympathy—falling in love when you are young and dying.
Teens dying young is a recurring theme, from Romeo + Juliet to The Fault in Our Stars .
There are telling echoes too of everything from American Beauty 's cracked vision of suburbia to the fever-dream intensity of more recent the-kids-are-not-alright touchstones like Waves or American Honey .
Like Shia LaBeouf in American Honey you can practically smell Moses through the screen, yet even as he steals drugs from his family he maintains his Tiger Beat cover boy sexuality, irresistible to Milla and for anyone older, the kind of kid you want to simultaneously hug and whack upside the head with rolled-up newspaper.
She’s only shaken out of her reverie when Moses (Toby Wallace), a tall, tattooed, rat-tailed young man resembling a taller version of Shia LaBeouf’s American Honey character, accidentally barrels into her.
In films such as “Sweet November” and “A Walk to Remember” grieving becomes a character-building growth exercise for our hearty heroes, with the doomed gals granted about as much depth as a beloved pet that gets hit by a car.
Babyteeth avoids the nauseating and twee history of dying teenager cinematic history from A Walk to Remember and Me And Earl And The Dying Girl.
But Murphy’s film, based on the hit play by Rita Kalnejais, is basically the antithesis of melodramatic schmaltz like A Walk to Remember or The Fault in Our Stars.
From “A Walk to Remember” (2002) to “The Fault in Our Stars” (2014) and “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” (2015), it’s a surefire trope in storytelling.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Directed by Stephen Chbosky
influenced Babyteeth (2020)
Themes
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), The Fault in Your Stars (2014), Lady Bird (2017), Call Me by Your Name (2018), Love, Simon (2018), The Souvenir y Booksmart (2019) son algunos de los mejores ejemplos de la década pasada.
Terminal teens have become fairly common in contemporary young-adult romances, from The Fault in Our Stars (Shailene Woodley has cancer, falls in love with Ansel Elgort), to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Olivia Cooke has leukemia, falls in love with Thomas Mann), to Five Feet Apart (Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse both have cystic fibrosis, fall in love with each other).
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), The Fault in Your Stars (2014), Lady Bird (2017), Call Me by Your Name (2018), Love, Simon (2018), The Souvenir y Booksmart (2019) son algunos de los mejores ejemplos de la década pasada.