Whatever

Released 1998
Stars Liza Weil, Chad Morgan, Kathryn Rossetter, Frederic Forrest, Gary Wolf, Dan Montano, John G Connolly
Directed by Susan Skoog

Fundamentally, being a teenage girl in the early 1980s wasn't a whole lot different than being a teenage girl at any time, although every decade offers its own challenges. For Anna Stockard (Liza Weil), the protagonist of Susan Skoog's insightful coming-of-age drama, the issues are when to lose her virginity, how far to proceed along the road to rebellion before experimentation turns self- destructive, and whether she has the stamina and the strength to face the future and make something of her life. Just about everyone who has ever been a teenager, regardless of sex, gender, or age, will identify with Anna's plight, since, to one degree or another, we have all experienced it.

That's not to say that Anna represents some sort of personification of adolescence. Quite the contrary, in fact - she's a unique, powerfully portrayed individual. Whatever is a period piece set in the topsy-turvy years when disco and free sex were dying an ugly death under the thumb of the Reagan Revolution, and being a teenager meant choosing between indulging and just saying no.

Summary by James Berardinelli