Let’s Talk About SEX!
S is for substantial – no porn
E is for experimental, explorative and hopefully entertaining
X is for [insert sexual fantasy or taboo]
Once there was a princess. She was blonde, brown-eyed and had the most innocent and capital-A-American face the world ever saw. She had a fab body and sometimes wore tiny bikinis, but that didn’t make her any less of a virginal creature. After all, she was not a girl but not yet a woman. I am talking about Britney Spears, not ‘Britney B*tch* but Britney the Idol that me and countless other 8 year old girls used to look up to. Back in 2002, Britney released a movie in which she played exactly the sort of character that she presented herself as in real life.
Lucy (Britney Spears), Kit (Zoe Saldana) and Mimi (Taryn Manning) are best friends as kids and bury a treasure that they promise to get back to on the day of their high school graduation. However, when the time comes, they are all very different persons. Lucy is a nerd, Kit is the high school diva and Mimi is pregnant. Still, they all eventually reunite and reluctantly go on a road trip. Along the road, their friendship reignites and each of their lives changes.
Needless to say, Britney’s Lucy is a virgin. In fact, right at the beginning of the film, Kit uses the word as an insult towards Lucy and shortly after, Lucy tries to lose her virginity to her lab partner. However, she stops before anything happens, stating she would rather lose it to someone she is truly attracted to. Even though Lucy is portrayed in an innocent and somewhat nerdy way, she is still physically attractive and looks just like I wanted to look in 2002. She’s got the perfect blonde hair dye, the pink blouses, the jean skirts and isn’t wearing glasses. In a way, it’s almost brave of the movie not to connect Lucy’s virginity to her appearance, or worse; let her be the ugly duckling that turns into a beautiful swan after sex.
Crossroads also deals with teenage pregnancy and rape in a somewhat refreshing way, especially for its time. Taryn Manning’s character Mimi is the character that has the most to deal with, yet she always tries to see the best in her situation. Of course it is not good to try to conceal sexual abuse but it’s realistic for her character to try to. She understands what society thinks of her – at one point in the movie she is called ‘trailer trash’ – but doesn’t really give a fuck. At least that is what she is trying to show; we later find out that some of this attitude is only a facade.
Some may think that Crossroads is too light-hearted or too shallow of a movie to deal with sexual conflicts like these but I think the movie manages to keep the balance between entertainment and emotional depth very well. It introduces young girls (which have to be the target audience) to some of these issues but doesn’t go too far into the details to be truly shocking. This sets it apart from something as up-in-the-air as the High School Musical franchise (portraying a very asexual world) and thus is a nice contrast to the things Disney puts out to our next generation.
Crossroads is also one of the few movies written and directed by women, which is why the relationship between the girls and the way they handle their individual problems is spot-on. So please do give this Rotten Tomato another chance!
