Nothing Is Private

Oh my goodness!

Last night I attended the screening of Nothing Is Private as my first film festival movie this year. A fabulous movie. It shows us a short period of time in a 13 year old girls life. Jasira has been sent to live with her father in a Texas suburb after her mother learns of inappropriate behaviour that has occurred in her home. She decides that her daughter is out of control and needs more discipline in her upbringing. So Jasira leaves the home of her self centred, manipulative mother to live in the home of her ultra-strict, abusive father. Since she receives no love and only the most basic care from her parents, Jasira accepts the attention of men. This is the most basic of descriptions. To give any other detail is to destroy the tension the film opens with and continues to build until the very last moment.

This is a movie that you feel in your gut. Although none of the characters in this movie are entirely evil or good, we do spend a great deal of time with the nasty bits of these people. The nastiness and redeeming moments are carried off because of the talents of the actors. There is not a bad performance in the movie. In fact, all performances were amazing. The movie also succeeds because of the fine script (based on the novel "Towelhead" by Alicia Erian) and excellent direction.

There will be many comparison's with American Beauty. There are many similar themes in the two films: bigotry, the sexuality of young people, abusive family relationships and social isolation. Some of these same themes were even to be found in Six Feet Under. Nothing Is Private, American Beauty and Six Feet Under all also use daydreams to show the inner thoughts of characters. I believe that Nothing Is Private stands on its own.

The only drawback to my experience last night was that this was the movie that I chose to take my parents to. I had worried that the movie might be racy and might be uncomfortable to have watched with parents. Visions in my head of what racy material I might see were far surpassed by a huge volume uncomfortable sexual material. If you are not comfortable with movies that involve the shaving of a 13 year old's genital area more than once.....do not take your parents to see this movie! Now....having said that I must point out that all sexual material in the movie is very tastefully handled. Many events are implied rather than viewed and my parents did tell me that they thought the movie was excellent. Still I feel pretty comfortable saying that it is not a movie that most people would feel comfortable viewing with their folks.

The cast and the director attended our screening and took part in a very enjoyable Q and A.