FOXES (1980)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Discriminating viewers and parents might scoff at "Foxes" and wonder why the kids are so miserable in this film that they resort to alcoholic binges. Actually, only one kid suffers the most - the others are simply trying to grow up and go with the flow. That is the basis for "Foxes" and the elegiac little masterpiece of neon-lit, punk youth nirvana, "Times Square" (both films came out the same year and did not make much of a splash at the box-office). "Foxes" is not a masterpiece of film but it is a canny, observant, sensitive portrayal of teenagers in the San Fernando Valley.
Jodie Foster is Jeanie, the seeming matriarch in her group of friends who sleep at each other's houses and try to survive in an adult world. We do not see them in school much but we do see how they relate to each other. Jeanie cares about her friends and listens, especially to her skateboarding pal, Brad (Scott Baio). There is also the boy-crazy Deirdre (Kandice Stroh) who has her eyes set on a supermarket bagger; the virginal Madge (Marilyn Kagan) who pines for an older man, Jay (Randy Quaid); and the very troubled teenage runaway, Annie (Cherie Currie) who wants to shut out her abusive father who happens to be a police officer. Jeanie also has her hands full with her single, frustrated mother (Sally Kellerman), who is also attending college, and her emotionally distant father who is a tour manager for the rock band Angel. Jeanie's main concern is the safety of the pill-polling, frequently wasted Annie.
Nobody in this movie is the least bit interested in school. These kids drive around town, hang out in construction sites or waterways, go to concerts, and get drunk. Parents are almost an afterthought but these teenage kids do not reflect any sort of anomie - they are trying to find their identity, their purpose in the moment. Jeanie seems the most mature, Madge wants to grow up too fast, Annie is simply a lost soul, and Brad wants to be romantically involved with Annie.
"Foxes" is extraordinarily shot and directed by Adrian Lyne (his debut film). He has an improvisatory eye for naturalism, relying on making the film an almost documentary-like expose with soft lighting (his visual trademark). Lyne also knows how to make the most of a scene, especially a dinner party that turns realistically frightening when too many teenagers show up and cause a ruckus (most 80's teen comedy-dramas can't quite match a scene like the one Lyne stages). Scenes with Annie are also realistically staged with major kudos to ex-Runaways band singer, Cherie Currie, who is explosive in her acting debut. Jodie Foster also delivers the goods with her trademark sympathy and soulfulness. And a scene where Brad tries to escape on a skateboard from a ragtag group of punks almost matches the excitement of similar scenes in "Back to the Future" (wonder if Robert Zemeckis got the idea of a skateboarding Marty McFly from "Foxes.")
"Foxes" is not perfect but it is a solidly sublime, universal and very moving take on what is means to make that transition from teenager to adult in suburbia. And I might not look at a pear tree the same way again.
