too old for St Trinian's

I can't remember the last time I felt so old at the cinema. Even the demographic of the audience at the Harry Potter films was older! It was supposed to be a 12, but I'd say the average age was about 9...



...I don't know what I expected really. The spirit of anarchy in the film was uplifting, but there was nothing much new going on - nothing that hadn't already been done with greater effect and greater controversy in the original films. And the corporate machines which surround all these kind of mainstream films (of which the originals weren't a part), marketing them to within an inch of their lives, somewhat devalues and contradicts the film's celebration of anarchy.

In the 60s and 70s girls behaving badly was new and shocking.





Today, there's nothing at all new or shocking about girls behaving badly.




Then there was the stereotyping of the girls into different categories (Emos, Posh Totty ((read wannabe-WAGS)), Geeks, and a few other misguided cliches). There's nothing more repressive than stereotyping - few practices are more effective at trapping people (men as well as women) into restrictive and prescriptive gender roles, reliant upon the perpetual (high)maintenance of certain behaviour that doesn't allow for deviance or deviation. I thought St Trinian's was supposed to be all about deviance! So much for anarchy...



I suppose I went to see it out of curiosity and the assurance that anything with Russell Brand in had to have an edge to it. Apparently I was wrong. It had about as much edge as a blancmange.



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