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Episode 696 - The Wild Boys (2017)

Episode 696 - The Wild Boys (2017)

Released Saturday, 25th January 2020
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Episode 696 - The Wild Boys (2017)

Episode 696 - The Wild Boys (2017)

Episode 696 - The Wild Boys (2017)

Episode 696 - The Wild Boys (2017)

Saturday, 25th January 2020
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Hi everyone!

Now that we’ve caught up on most of our award nominations, I’m going to close out the quarter on Saturdays with a continuation of our Under the Kanopy series. Kanopy is a library and university funded streaming service that grants card holders and students six free streams per month, from a variety of classic, international, and independent films. They also have streaming agreements with excellent distributors, like A24 and Kino Lorber, who often produce and distribute the critically acclaimed, if not commercially successful films. Today’s movie is a surrealistic look at gender in all its forms – biological, cultural, social, personal – however you define it, this film will both resonate and challenge, in an almost pure art house fashion. It’s also definitely not safe for work or for kids, which I’ll mention again at the top of the review.

Before the review, we’ll have a promo from our good friends at the Book of Lies Podcast. Every week, Brandi Fleeks and Sunni Hepburn take a look at a fraud case or famous con artist, breaking down the methods, the signals, and how to spot similar scams in your life. You can find them on Twitter @Bookofliespod and on Facebook and Instagram @bookofliespodcast. Be sure to like, retweet, share, review, and subscribe!

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Here we go!

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<< BOOK OF LIES PROMO >>

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Today’s movie is THE WILD BOYS(2017), or in the French, LES GARÇONS SAUVAGES, the surrealist art house drama written and directed by Bertrand Mandico. After the brutal murder of a woman on La Réunion, five young men (all played by women) are taken from their wealthy families by a Dutch captain (Sam Louwyck) for rehabilitation, on an island that begins to affect their gender, in all its forms. And then stuff gets really weird.

No spoilers.

However, a content warning for sexual assault and pervasive sexual themes for the film itself.

When I first saw the listing for THE WILD BOYS on Rotten Tomatoes, I immediately thought about the novel of the same name by Williams S. Burroughs, the notorious Beat Generation author. In the novel, Burroughs depicts a future gay youth movement intent on the downfall of modern society. I’m a huge fan of Burroughs, nurtured by a combination of his spoken word album produced in part with Michael Franti entitled “Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales”, along with a deeply affecting viewing of 1991’s NAKED LUNCH from David Cronenberg, my first real look at art house and surrealist cinema. I greatly appreciate the way he wrote about being bisexual, often challenging his readers and society in general with works that test the boundaries of good taste, but also smash the boundaries of LGBTQ inclusion in literature.

THE WILD BOYS, today’s film, is not an adaptation of that novel. However, it does play with gender in many of the same ways. Gay men often mis-gender themselves and each other, calling each other queens and girl and bitch and other female terms. A lot of this self-identification comes from not conforming to the previously established, heteronormative gender roles, wanting to separate themselves from the toxic masculinity. We used to see sex and gender as an either/or, instead of the non-linear spectrum and incredible diversity in both sex and gender we understand today. Burroughs didn’t have the vocabulary back then to talk about gender fluidity, but his novels and characters would sometimes transform from male to female, and back again, and into inexplicable additional genders. Just another groundbreaking aspect of Burroughs’ work. So, it’s hard not to see today’s film at least partially inspired by the novel, as David Bowie, Joy Division, and Patti Smith were all inspired by the same work.

I find the real genius of today’s film in the casting of the five primary protagonists with young women, including: Pauline Lorillard as Romuald, Vimala Pons as Jean-Louis, Diane Rouxel as Hubert, Anaël Snoek as Tanguy, and Mathilde Warnier as Sloane. While each character has their own unique traits, they all encompass a sort of character type similar to the droogs in 1971’a A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, based on Anthony Burgess’ incredible and often overlooked novel. However, instead of the leader being send for rehabilitation, the entire gang is sent to the island, and all predictably turning on one another as their bodies begin to change.

Whereas Burroughs lacked the vocabulary to talk about gender-fluidity, Mandico takes the concept to new levels. On the island, the more the young men indulge themselves with the island’s pleasures, the more they begin to transform physically into women. Prior to the actual transformation, Mandico uses costuming, hair, and makeup to make all five young men look like tomboys, clearly feminine (whatever that means), but wearing masculine (again, whatever that means) clothing. The fluidity only kicks into high gear as the costumes come off, revealing new physical traits even as other physical traits begin to, we’ll say, fall off. We find that the more the men transform into women, the more they become the targets of their friends.

We should be rightly horrified by five young men raping and murdering a high society woman, just as in the most shocking scene of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. But because we know the actors are women, it makes the scene different, playing on our expectations, and perhaps even the exploitation of women in film overall. I think these acts are also blunted by Mandico’s cinematography, a combination of actual locations, crazy filters applied to actual locations, and a layered staging of other sets, all of which amp up the surrealism in a way that continues to let us explore the themes in play. This is definitely an art house film complete with nascent progressive themes and challenging subject matter, but it is also well done for fans of the genre.

THE WILD BOYS is a surrealistic look at gender fluidity, starring five young women as five young men, whose rehabilitation begins to change their sex, gender, and by extension, identity. Using a combination of themes clearly inspired by the Burroughs novel of the same name, with some clear homages to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, Bertrand Mandico creates an excellent meditation on gender, in all its forms. Fans of surrealist films, or films about the LGBTQ experience, especially in a world of increasing gender fluidity, should definitely check out this film.

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

Metacritic: 64 

One Movie Punch: 8.8/10

THE WILD BOYS (2017) is not rated and is currently playing on Kanopy and Shudder.

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