The Teen Angst Meter Soars Off the Charts

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The New York Sun

“To be a fat girl, you don’t have to be fat,” intones a gay high school senior named Rodney at the onset of “Fat Girls.” You don’t even have to be a girl. It’s a state of mind: “Being a fat girl is being comfortable being yourself.”

In this new coming-of-age-film, the 22-year-old filmmaker Ash Christian plays Rodney, who navigates the pitfalls of small-town life in Bloom, Texas, with his best friend Sabrina (Ashley Fink) in the final weeks before graduation. Mr. Christian’s film focuses on Rodney’s journey toward finding his inner fat girl. At 300 pounds, Sabrina is guaranteed a place in this club, but she is ridiculed in school simply for her appearance, whereas Rodney’s sexuality and personality set him apart from everyone in their small Southern town. A musical theater aficionado, he unapologetically sings show tunes, rollerskates around town, and brings his crush to the prom.

As the writer, director, and star of the film, Mr. Christian fully embodies the lead character. He grew up in Paris, Texas, which gives the film an autobiographical feel, but ultimately a myopic approach. “Fat Girls” is so caught up in exposing the bigotry of small-town Texas and finding humor in unexpected places that it often loses its heart.

Reacting against the strictures of his conservative town, Rodney longs for urban life. And the film takes none too kindly to his Podunk surroundings in trying to depict Rodney’s journey. Bloom is filled with bigots, morons, and racists who torment Rodney and his friends for not fitting in. Rodney’s mother bakes things like “Jesus Jambalaya” and makes her son promise that he’s not gay, while local degenerates take distinct pleasure in humiliating him. Rodney’s father comes in for the worst reproach. Unattractive and bigoted, he dies of a heart attack while cheating on his wife with “a midget woman.”

The only calming adult figures in the film are Rodney’s gay theater teacher, Seymour Cox (Jonathan Caouette), and Sabrina’s lesbian parents. Mr. Cox — a “total fat girl” — stokes Rodney’s theater ambitions and encourages him to move to New York to pursue an acting career, while Sabrina’s mothers generally nod empathetically.

“Fat Girls” is a vigorous attempt to transform exclusion into a matter of pride, but it often feels more like revenge than entertainment. Sabrina barely contains a good deal of rage, though she lightens up a bit when she begins a relationship with a diminutive refugee (Robin de Jesus). Mr. Christian’s cherubic cheeks and sweet demeanor make Rodney an often empathetic character, but his cold reactions to his friends and family do not do enough to set him apart from them.

Trying to capitalize on the humor in tragedy, the film manages to make Rodney appear as despicable as his farcical father in a scene following the latter’s death. When his mother comes to console him, Rodney carelessly laughs in her face. She mistakes his laughter for tears and holds him tighter, but her attempt to care for him is futile. The callousness ruins the scene. Later, Rodney’s attractive cousin, Bobby (Justin Bruening), complains that his mother is a “whore,” but Rodney comes up with something worse, responding with disdain: “My mother’s a … Christian.”

Rodney often seems well-intentioned enough, but Mr. Christian’s cold portrayal of anyone who does not actively support his career ambitions and sexuality flattens the possibilities of the narrative. Instead, Rodney bides his time until he can move to New York to work on Broadway. He brings the school’s sexy Satanist, Joey (Joe Flaten), to the prom, sleeps with Mr. Cox, and does his “number” for a retired Broadway performer. Rodney’s ability to finally realize his “inner fat girl” concludes the film, but as much as “Fat Girls” takes shots at the town of Bloom and its inhabitants, it never fully shakes the depressing notion that Rodney may be one of them, even if he is not of them.

Also, while the film follows its protagonist dutifully, it never establishes his talent. And though Rodney looks up to Mr. Cox when he discovers the theater teacher impersonating Liza Minnelli in a local gay bar, Mr. Cox’s fate of returning home to care for his ill mother and singing in a tiny dive bar is not a happy one.

Despite his outsider status, the one thing separating Rodney from his peers is his outsize sense of self. Sadly, Rodney might be different from the sad little town he lives in, but he might not be better.

mkeane@nysun.com


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