Monkey Bars
From the Archives
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12-Mar-2021
When fourteen-year-old Maggie and her friends hang out with some older guys they meet on Facebook, a crush unravels into a twisted trance fueled by Four Lokos and naive infatuation. “Monkey Bars,” directed by Jacqueline Xerri, is a coming-of-age drama about a group of teenagers that perfectly captures the feelings of youth, a dreamy headspace filled with new emotions and desires. Time stops when the bad boy, Pete, calls Maggie and her friends out of their reverie. After meeting in a grocery store parking lot, they rendezvous later that night (in another parking lot!) and while getting loaded on cheap malt alcohol, Maggie falls under the spell of Pete’s piercing stare and dangerous attitude (“I like things that can kill me”). Xerri nails the dynamics between boys and girls of this age, the awkward distancing, the insecure patterns of speech, the incompatibility of interests — it’s all so new and exciting and scary. What at first seems like an innocent crush drifts into darker territory, and the film follows suit. -KA. Writer, Director: Jacqueline Xerri. Cast: Sofia Popol, Christopher Michael Inman, Milly Shapiro, Shea Bryant, Santiago Velez, John Rider. Producer: Raymond Knudsen. Executive Producer: Ethan Lazar. Director of Photography: Robert Bevis. Editors: Stephen Musumeci and Jacqueline Xerri.
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