The Girl Week Blogathon: Dreamland

Dell over at Dell on Movies came up with this quick idea for a blogathon. This week he's been focusing on a different film each day with a female lead and asks us to do the same. I'm going to talk about the lead in one of my favorite independent films of all time, Dreamland. I reviewed it at the start of my blog way back in 2009. It's one of the films that kind of got me hooked on indies. So instead of a full blown review again, I'm going to list 5 things that make Audrey interesting.

1) She's caring. Her father is agoraphobic, and can't leave their desert trailer park without suffering panic attacks. Her best friend, Calista has recently been diagnosed with MS. She takes care of both them emotionally.

2) She's thoughtful. She's a talented writer, though she's finished high school, she's too afraid to go to college because that means leaving her family and friends to take care of themselves.

3) When she's not busy hiding her college acceptance letters in a box under her bed, she makes a little time for herself - hence her fuckbuddy, Abraham. 

4) She's curious. When a new boy, Mookie (yeah, people have weird names in this) even though Calista calls "dibs" on him right away. They have a connection and she lets it play out organically even thought she tells him up front that Calista would be better for him.

5) She's not another teen in a teen movie. Played by the severely underrated Agnes Bruckner, if this movie had a different director, a different screen writer, and was released by a major studio, it would be bland. Bruckner would've had to cover up her tattoos, which she has on display here (and I loved, because it's different) Her thoughtfulness would've been shown by her sitting her in bright colored room with white Christmas lights on the walls as she writes in her notebook, or maybe types it on her livejournal. The "love triangle" would've dominated the movie, and Audrey would drive away at the end of it while a Demi Lovato song played in the background. None of this happens here. Audrey is different. Her poetry, often told in voice overs is deep and very true to her. She never once falls into a category other than "intriguing."

Thanks for hosting, Dell!