Starring: Raven Adamson, Katie Coseni, Madeline Bisson
In a small town in mid-1950's upstate New York, a group of middle-school girls watch out for each other; "Legs" (Adamson) an idealist from a broken home, her friend Maddie (Coseni) tomboy Goldie (Claire Mazerolle) and new recruit, Rita (Bisson). The four form a gang known as Foxfire, vandalising property and and attacking those who are abusive or those they see as holding up a chauvinistic society. As the gang grows in notoriety (and Legs serves time in a juvenile detention centre), Foxfire become more politicised, gains in members and starts committing bigger and more dangerous acts.
Not the first time that Kate Oates's 1993 novel, Foxfire: Confessions Of A Girl Gang has been adapted to screen, (there was a film adaptation in 1996) this version of the story has both great strengths and great weaknesses. Centred around a group of young female radicals, Foxfire provides an interesting and oddly appropriate comparison between the infighting that often corrupts political idealism and the squabbling and manipulation that comes with female adolescence. The performances are all strong and the characters are mostly well defined, although a couple of the gang's later additions aren't given quite as much of a chance to shine. A film which bares some comparison with Foxfire is Ridley Scott's Thelma And Louise (1991). An admirable film in its own right, but both films suffer from the idea that being pro-woman is to be anti-man. In both films, most men are portrayed as either selfish, sleazy screw-ups, potential rapists or both with the one token positive influence (Thelma And Louise had Harvey Keitel as a sympathetic cop, Foxfire has an eccentric former Priest and committed socialist as a sort of mentor figure).
The film does work very well on a visual level, evoking the 1950's in an effective manner, even if it is sometimes a little forced and the human story at the heart of it makes for some really compelling material for a good share of the film. Sadly the film's length (nearly two-and-a-half hours) does it a disservice, devoting too much time to some of the smaller episodes and details that make up the plot. A rather extensive edit of the film would've probably made this film one of the best of the year; but as it is, it's serviceable with a few moments of glory.
Next time, a French rom-com starring Kristin Scott-Thomas in Looking For Hortense.
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