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I absolutely adore the idea of RIOT GIRLS. A world with queer characters set in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone seems to have coped with the end of the world by diving head-first into Punk music. Sign me up!
Riot Girls is set after a mysterious sickness eliminates all adults. The remaining older teenagers are left to manage everything on their own and they choose to divide their small town into an east and west side. On the eastern side is where the protagonists, Scratch and Nat, who are also in a relationship, live. Scratch is very aggressive, violent and impulsive, and Nat however does relatively appear to be more restrained, relatively speaking. Nat happens to be the sister of Jack, who is the leader of their eccentric gang. Unfortunately, Jack gets captured by the West Side’s ‘Titans’. That’s when Scratch, Nat and a west sider named Sony decide to work together to rescue him.
Riot Girls portrays a universe where kids are free to explore their imaginations without getting scolded by adults, which is one of the most exciting aspects of the film. The youthful characters do not behave like ‘miniature adults.’ If one pays attention, they will realize that the young people in the film are obsessed with aesthetics, regardless of the fact it is a post-apocalyptic setting. There are certain actions and beliefs that characters hold which are perfectly understandable considering their young ages. Most importantly, their depiction of teenage antagonists is spot on. Rather, the Titans demonstrate “baby’s first fascism.” It is not that they differ much from bullies in school; the fundamental difference lies in the fact that there are no adults to control their actions. To summarize, adults are absent in the lives of the characters and all we see are the consequences of that.
I am curious as to who Riott Girl’s target audience was. The tone of the movie is at times awkward, to say the least. Primarily, it offers a pretty light-hearted look at a post-apocalyptic world with some humour thrown in. However, at the same time, the violence is jarring. There’s an attempted rape scene, and on top of that they shoot a child in cold blood. My guess is the movie is targeted to teenagers, however,r it is most definitely rated R. While that is the case, an R rating doesn’t really stop younger people from viewing it. However, for the filmmakers, it might be prudent to make sure that their product is at least legal to be viewed by their target demographic.
To be honest Riot Girls adds little to nothing new to the post-apocalyptic spectrum. It’s inception is cursory which, coupled with the fact that the most brutal aspect is the young people trying to save someone from a rival gang is stale. This setting has, in fact, an entire subgenre of young adults novels that speak about teenagers in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The only original concepts here are the focus on aesthetics, sexism, and queer themes. But to be honest, that is enough for me.
What’s interesting about Riot Girls is that, while it is neither high-budget nor extraordinary in any way, I still found it to be an enjoyable movie. In this setting, it is a good little film. It’s a post-apocalyptic movie with queer characters as the actors with the surviving leads in the end. What is more comforting is that this is not a complex viewing experience, and even though it is not the most creative apocalyptic movie, it is an unusual WLW film, expressing strong sci-fi themes rather than drama and romance.
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