Slackers, lesbians and super 8

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures Arizona Daily Wildcat (From left to right) Matt Day As Micheal, Frances O'Connor as Mia, Radha Mitchell as Danni, Matthew Dyktynski as Ari and Alice Garner as Alice in Emma-Kate Croghan's "Love and other catastrophes."

It's all there: flimsy dialogue about pop culture, a self-conscious incorporation of media devices (such as film cameras and tape recorders), sex in public restrooms, gratuitous marijuana use, slackers, lesbians and the (surprisingly common) random death of a minor character. You've got to admire the 25-year-old director for fitting it all into her first feature film.

"This is a movie made by it's audience," said Croghan in a brief phone interview. "That gives it a certain immediacy and freshness. A lot of films about young people are made by older directors looking back on their youth."

She knows how to pitch her film. Despite stealing many of its ideas from other movies, "Love and Other Catastrophes" does have pace and flair. It's not realistic, but it's more dynamic then "Clerks" and more together than "Slacker."

The story is essentially a romantic comedy of errors. Mia (Frances O'Connor), a nonchalant, charismatic film student, is given the administrative run-around as she struggles to switch departments in order to get closer to a cute male professor. Mia's girl friend (we assume that Mia is bisexual) Danni (played by Radha Mitchell) feels neglected and tries to make her jealous by hanging around with another girl. Mia lives with Alice (Alice Garner), whose thesis "Doris Day as a Feminist Warrior" is four years o verdue. Together they are looking for a roommate. Alice is also looking for the perfect man, who has to be honest, left-handed, and like the same movies she does. Ari (Matthew Dyktynski), a studly Classics student, has at least one eye on Alice; and Micha el (Matt Day), a shy med student, is just trying to find some reasonably normal people to live with.

It's a cute film. Direct camera addresses are used playfully, the way Spike Lee did in "She's Gotta Have It," and intertitles (titles separating and introducing scenes), with quotes by anyone from Zorba the Greek to Nietzsche, are thrown in at regular int ervals. The film is bookended with super-8 clips.

Sex, although never too explicit, is part of the fabric of the film. Mia speaks casually about giving a "hand job" to a hacker who promises to erase her $663 library fine, and Ari earns extra money as a gigolo. It's all good. When Michael and Ari notice t wo men going at it in a bathroom stall, they just shrug, smile at each other, and return to their conversation.

"Sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll have always been part of youth culture," Croghan explained. "It's part of the landscape of being young. It was just natural for us to put it in." Well ... either Australia is a super open-minded and AIDS-free place (and we should all take the next boat over) or somebody is taking a bit of license here.

"Love and Other Catastrophes" is a bit over the top in other ways as well. The dialogue and situations are funny, but often quite artificial. The script was apparently written in two weeks and the film was shot four weeks after that. "We wanted to make a film very fast so it would have a particular energy to it," Croghan says, adding that a tight schedule makes fund-raising easier as well. What the film gained in tempo, however, it lost in depth.

Despite its saturation of Gen-X themes, the movie overlooks the resistance that many young people feel to being categorized. Certain twentysomethings may feel a little exploited by the film's oversimplified, happy-go-lucky portrayal of young people. In on e of the scenes, Michael finds himself stuck with a talkative girl at a cocktail party. She goes on and on about Milan Kundera's take on Nietzsche's theory of "eternal return." If we live life only once, she explains, life is light. If we live life over a nd over for eternity however, life is heavy. Michael cringes, gives her a brief answer and slips away. This quasi-intellectual party guest is thrown in for laughs, and we aren't supposed to take her seriously.

In the same way, "Love and Other Catastrophes" is meant to be viewed as light comedy. If we take it to be a document on our generation, the movie may appear insulting. If you didn't have any problems with "Clerks," however, there is no reason you won't li ke this film. They are both endearing in the same half-baked way. Just like the whole notion of a Generation X, they can't be taken too seriously.

Emma-Kate Croghan's next film is still in the idea phase. However, it will be shot in Australia and it will be about young people. Hopefully she'll take a bit more then two weeks to write the script this time.