Jack and Diane

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Movie Details

• Genre: Drama, Horror
• Release Date: 2012-11-02 Limited
• Running Time: 110 min.
• Director: Bradley Rust Gray
• Cast: Juno Temple, Jena Malone, Riley Keough, Kylie Minogue, Leo Fitzpatrick, Haviland Morris, Cara Seymour, Dane DeHaan, Neal Huff, Michael Chernus
• Writer: Bradley Rust Gray
• Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
• Official Site: Jack and Diane Official Site

Equating teens with animals has long been a handy horror-cinema way to tackle pubescent sexual development. So with its most attention-grabbing element relegated to been-there, done-that status, the werewolf-themed Jack and Diane-- whose supernatural intimations are treated in purely metaphoric, not literal, fashion--has little new to offer other than a coming-of-age lesbian romance of a distinctly precious, nostalgia-filtered sort. Writer/director Bradley Rust Gray focuses on young people whose social disconnection manifests itself in awkward face-to-face and cellular communication, with Diane (Juno Temple) and Jack (Riley Keough) given to halting, ineloquent speech dominated by delayed responses and just-functional statements. Their sparks ignite almost as soon as Diane, bloody-nosed and in a Raggedy Ann dress, appears in a store where butch brunette Jack works. A touch of thighs and a glancing brush of a breast are all it takes to send the two to a nightclub where they sit in silence until consummating their attraction with a kiss-- a moment of ecstasy, but also of danger, as suggested by visual interludes that hint at an underlying, unstable animalism: hair slithering over and coiling around, muscle and flesh. When they stand at a kitchen counter, Keough in a Ministry T-shirt and Temple in a skanky-pixie yellow belly shirt, the contrast is so stark that it comes off as contrived. Although the leads have delinquent attitude to spare--most of it manifested during run-ins with Diane's aunt (Cara Seymour), who's ignored by Diane and taunted with come-ons by Jack-- neither is able to emote anything genuine with or without dialogue.