Foxfire (1996) is one of those rare films about teenagers that manages to imbue a well worn genre with heart and social relevance. The film is ostensibly an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates though, given the disparities between the film and its source, screenwriter Elizabeth White seems to have only used the book as a springboard to explore the same themes in a more contemporary and commercial milieu. It doesn’t really matter anyway how alike the novel and the film are, the film speaks for itself.
Foxfire boasts a cast with a tremendous amount of charisma and chemistry which allows more cliche moments in the script to float passed without drawing very much, if any, attention away from the larger portrait of female friendship. The romantic tension between Hedy Burress and Angelina Jolie is particularly gripping. Filmmaker Anette Haywood-Carter is wise to use this romantic bond as the hook by which to reel audiences’ empathy in and redistribute it to the other characters that make up the rest of the gang.
Foxfire is about women empowering one another during a time of change in their lives (these women are 16 – 17 years old) that not only shapes them as individuals, but gives them the strength and the courage to rail against the predatory climate of a patriarchal society and culture. Legs, the Angelina Jolie character, is a kind of mythic force, spurring the other women on, inspiring them, and often unifying them behind a single cause or purpose. Haywood-Carter and White lean into this aspect of the character just enough for the fantastic to be relatable, avoiding the distance from narrative that almost always comes with a “manic pixie dream girl” type.
Though Foxfire is a bold precursor to everything the #metoo movement has come to represent, certain aspects of the film that are dated (but I believe these qualities only help to make the film more endearing). The scene where Legs tattoos the breasts of the girls in the gang (with the scores of candles, slow pans, amber lighting, and sexy music) is so comically nineties in its expression of lesbian desire. Likewise, the rollerblades that the character Maddy uses as her primary mode of transportation kept me thinking of Adrienne Shelly’s character in Hal Hartley’s short film Opera #1 (1994).
I just wish that Anette Haywood-Carter directed more features. It is always exciting for me to see a film that can really make a genre work without subverting or rewriting the genre in the process. Check this film out, it is as relevant now as it ever was.
