90 Movies in 90 Days: Boys and Girls (1983)

I’m kicking off 2023 by trying to watch and review one movie every day for the first 90 days, all of which will be 90 minutes or less.

Title: Boys and Girls
Release Date: October 1983
Director: Don McBrearty
Production Company: Atlantis Films
Summary/Review:

This short film from Canada based on a story by Alice Munro illustrates the way children are conditioned for gender roles at a young age.  Margaret (Megan Follows), a young teenager, wants to help out on her father’s fox farm but is persistently nudged towards working with her mother in the kitchen and acting “like a lady.”  Meanwhile, her younger brother Laird (Ian Heath) seems to get to what he likes.  The movie captures an act of defiance by Margaret that leads her to understand her place in the world (and strengthens her resolve to resist it).

Just a content warning: a horse is shot and butchered early in this film and another horse is threatened with the same later on so this may not be the easiest film to watch.

Rating: ***

Song of the Week: “Go Dig My Grave” by Lankum

Lankum – “Go Dig My Grave”

Lankum, a contemporary Irish folk band from Dublin, perform their rendition of this traditional suicide ballad beginning in the Appalachian tradition.  But over the course of the song the droning background albums build up to something stranger and darker.  It’s absolutely gob-smacking!

 

Songs of the Week for 2023

January

• “Happiness” by THICK
• “Abathembu” by uKhoiKhoi
• “Blood Rushes” by CIVIC
• “Doomscrollers” by Quasi
• “Fold” by Bonobo & Jacques Greene

February

• “Go Dig My Grave” by Lankum