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"Skook" is the sort of movie you see a lot at indie film festivals from young artists making their first feature films. They showcase twentysomethings who are wandering emotionally and geographically, not really sure what to make of their lives as they emerge from the cocoon of modern society's extended adolescent period.
Of course, the plight of the characters are often abstracted from the lives of the filmmakers, who fall back on the adage to "write what you know." As a result, stories like "Skook" slide along on an undercurrent of authenticity. Often, not much happens from a traditional narrative sense, but these films are less about plot than mood and emotional projection.
Ashley Pishock wrote the screenplay and stars as Amy, a 20-year-old college student in New York City who returns to her hometown on an extended visit for the holidays. She's not really excited about returning to Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, since it's the sort of place from which smart, free-thinking kids like her want to escape.
"Skook" is the affectionate nickname/epithet locals apply to the region or anyone from it. It's blue-collar country, where adults get back working on the coal mines or in supporting industries, and teens get wasted and dream about leaving, or staying. Amy did not fit in during high school, and there's a reference to an awful incident that served to underline her outcast status.
Jordan (Patrick Arnold) was one of those who participated in the torment of Amy, a good-looking popular kid whom everybody looks up to at 17 but who will doubtless be a faceless worker drone by 30. He's not a bad guy, and forgotten impulses of attraction between them reignite between them, despite their sour history.
Kailee McGee and Rich Costales play Amy's grunge buddies from the old days, who never left and pretty much continue their tiny rebellion against everything Skook, since they know they are trapped there. I also enjoyed Paul Castro Jr. as Brian, the local rich kid/party boy; there's an art to being snotty, and he's mastered it.
Directed by Connor Hurley, "Skook" ambles wherever Amy does, focusing on what she does and letting other things slide by. There is unexplored territory with her dad (Cat Collins), who has recently taken up with an older woman, much to the delight of the Skook gossips.
Amy herself has an ostensible boyfriend (David Charney), an Occupy Wall Street type who manages to turn every aspect of his activism into an act of narcissism. After initially declining to travel with her, he shows up in Skook unannounced and then promptly leaves, without much significance (or purpose) to his stay.
Just 72 minutes long, "Skook" has the feel of a rehearsal for something bigger and grander. Pishock, with her angular beauty and thoughtful gaze, reminds me of a younger Parker Posey. And based on her screenwriting, there's a brain and soul there, too.
4 Yaps