Personally, when it comes to this movie, I could have sat back and enjoyed things like Garner’s character Riley North channeling Tyler Durden for no apparent reason or imagery almost exactly mirroring images from season two of Daredevil if the script had been a little tighter and more thought out. If the genre in question were one of my favorites, like sci-fi or horror, I’d be on the other side of the line, for sure. Neither side is wrong, it’s just a difference in perception. I think, in general, action film fans have fun seeing the tropes and genre elements play and see the reuse of tropes as more of an homage than a ripoff, while critics (myself admittedly included) tend to find the reuse of the same tropes tiring, lazy, and predictable. I think it’s worth noting that the general critical consensus for Peppermint is fairly low (13% Rotten Tomatoes score and a Metacritic rating of 29, as of the writing of this review) while audiences seem to be receiving it fairly well (81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes). Peppermint is an interesting mix of several classic action movies and TV shows, including the Daredevil and Punisher Netflix shows (a particularly bold move considering Garner’s noncanon link to the franchise), the Death Wish franchise (another bold move releasing Peppermint so close to the newest installment), the Kill Bill movies, Die Hard, and Fight Club, among others. And, for the most part, I wasn’t wrong, but I was disappointed. When I first saw a trailer for Peppermint, I thought to myself, “Jennifer Garner playing Frank Castle? I’m in!” I grew up with Garner kicking ass on Alias and I’m a big fan of the moral ambiguity and overall grittiness of the Netflix Marvel shows, so even if it looked a bit predictable and derivative, I was ready for the ride. Synopsis: Peppermint is a revenge story centering on a young mother who finds herself with nothing to lose, and is now going to take from her enemies the very life they stole from her. Never over-dramatic, always gentle, and with the audiovisual pleasure of a vintage swimwear catalogue, Peppermint Soda is a lazy summer treat with a massive heart, and sound awareness of its politics.Stars: Jennifer Garner, John Gallagher Jr., John Ortiz Young girls grow into their politics, sexuality, and the ways men will view them once they're desired, and they are never shamed for still figuring it out. Like films such as Girls Can't Swim, Anne-Sophie Birot's seaside tale of tender first heartbreak between two girls, Peppermint Soda's revolutionary spirit shows the childhood wonder in these young women’s stories that often misses the big screen. French filmmakers have made some of the medium’s finest coming-of-age stories, but the honest portrayal of the lives of young girls makes Peppermint Soda special. Films like Peppermint Soda (and Kurys's later film Entre Nous, also streaming on Criterion) present an incredible underseen canon of truthful portraits of youth. One sister grows politically active, and the younger learns the beginnings of sexuality.įrench cinema so often canonizes the works of great men that it forgets about the women breathing life into the medium. One sister cries into her mother's shoulder, and the other watches through the doorway. Going from the last lazy days of summer, to waking up in a school day where their politics are heard, and love and friendship are colliding into one, the lives of the two sisters are entwined with the broader fight against anti-Semitism, fascism, and the lecherous older men who see them now. It is the 60s, and Anne (Eléonore Klarwein) is entering her teenage years, while her sister Frédérique (Odile Michel), three years her elder, is well in the heat of her teenage turmoil. Diane Kurys's debut film Peppermint Soda is about the children of Karl Marx and Coca-Cola, the bright contrast in teenage years between fanciful ideas about the world, and a riotous anger at the cruel nature of capitalistic society. Rarely do we see these same revolutionary ideals of the feminine, young girls spouting rowdy anti-fascist ideals without the radicalization towards violence that young men are often moved towards. Left-wing French cinema has often focused upon the revolutionary spirits of students, most notably Jean-Lic Godard's depiction of radical Maoist youth asserting their position in the world through any means in La Chinoise. Newton once said, the youth inherit the revolution.
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