Suburban Crime is its Own Genre: An Observation

Ever since we started Suburban Elitist, I’ve started to think about the word “suburban” or “suburbia” more. Mainly, I’ve noticed this word become more apparent in movie settings. Of course, it is mainly noticed in coming of age movies, but I have also noticed the suburban setting in darker movies too. I’ve also noticed that these movies have very similar plot motivations. I noticed that they all start with people who are bored in their normal lives and how they make drastic changes to fix that. The more I looked into it, the more I noticed that this could basically be its own genre. So, I decided to watch four movies that I think perfectly encapsulate the idea of a dark, suburban teen movie.

The Movies I Watched:

Heathers (1989):

Synopsis:

If you weren’t a theatre kid in highschool, and don’t know what this movie is about… Heathers is about a girl named Veronica who, after meeting her PSYCHOTIC boyfriend, decides to finally get back at the popular girls at her highschool and destroy their whole school they’re at it.

My Thoughts:

I love this movie a little too much. Of COURSE I know every word to the musical, but c’mon. The wardrobe? The lines? The plot? IT’S ICONIC! This is one of my favorite 80’s movies, and I think it says a lot about teenage culture. It’s darkly funny and I think that it does a good job about how monumental things feel when you’re in highschool. It perfectly encapsulates the moody teenager with her bored life and how she wants to change it. She has the normal suburban life, but wants to change it and show she can do more. This movie is the perfect example of teenagers acting like adults and thinking they can take serious situations into their own hands all while they’re still trying to figure out what to wear to their school dances.

American Beauty (1999):

Synopsis:

The “picture-perfect” family gets a microscope taken to it and it is shown that it is not as perfect as it seems to be. You are dared to look closer at the idea of the perfect family and you will be shocked at what you see…

My Thoughts:

This film aged POORLYYYYyyyy… Wow. I’m sorry, I had to say it. This, in my opinion, is the ultimate film guys bible (besides their Lord and Savior, Pulp Fiction, of course). This movie has themes and imagery coming out its ass. I mean the roses representing beauty, lust, growth, perfection, etc; you get the point the rose is important! It’s basically the entire movie! It honestly is a really interesting concept to see the idea of the perfect family, and how it can so easily be disrupted. However, if I may quote my Letterboxd review, “Eh.” It may be that I had to write too many papers for my film class about this movie, but I really did not think it was that great. I’m sorry, film bros! Can I still come to the meetings?

The Virgin Suicides (1999):

Synopsis:

According to the boys across the street, the Lisbon sisters are perfect. After the sisters’ shocking suicide, the boys find themselves, even years later, reviewing the girls final months trying to make sense of it.

My Thoughts:

This is Sofia Coppola’s directorial debut, and I found it pretty good! I thought it played with the ideas of perception versus reality really well. I also think Coppola played with the idea of the male gaze really well. The only big problem I had with this movie was that, because of the emphasis of the male gaze in this movie (since of course it’s men retelling the story of women), the girls lacked deeper, darker emotions. I felt like the girls lacked three-dimensional characterization, which made it harder to understand their struggles and why they did what they did.

Thoroughbreds (2017):

This dark comedy is about two old friends who rekindle their friendship and hatch up a deadly plan that might solve both of their problems. I mean… what are friends for???

My Thoughts:

The amount of horse girl jokes I could make about this movie is unmatched. I thought this movie was really interesting. It made me think about how important emotions are in life. If we don’t have them, is life still worth living? Also Anya Taylor Joy and Olivia Cooke were scarily good in this movie. They killed it (haha). The girls made this movie so eerie I could hear my heart beating during the final couple scenes.

I chose these movies because they highlighted teenagers in seemingly comfortable, suburban lives. Yet that isn’t the case at all. These movies all have fairly different plots, but I noticed after watching them all for this article, they all end in death.

Here we have four separate stories about teenagers who are unhappy with their lives and want to change that. They are all on a journey to what they think is a better life. In Heathers and Thoroughbreds, they take matters into their own hands to improve their own lives. Whereas in The Virgin Suicides and American Beauty, we are onlookers at people who want better for their lives. It is really interesting to think about how these four stories convey loneliness and unhappiness and how they show that teenagers are willing to take things into their own hands.

I believe that this niche genre exists to show that kids who live a suburban lifestyle want to be more, and they want to be in control of their lives. I think that a lot of these movies end in some kind of death to show that even though teenagers who live comfortably have a lot of resources, they are still just kids. The death these characters face, although very real, in a way shows the death of their innocence and the death of their complacency to suburban life. At the end of these movies, these characters cannot just go back to their regular, perfect suburban lives. They have, in a way, killed the security that suburban lives supplies. Most of the things these kids are complaining about are just very surface level. When you’re in high school everything feels so serious and so life and death. I think that this genre plays with that idea in an interesting and high risk kinda way. These movies feel so final and serious when in reality, Heathers is about how a highschool senior hates the popular group so she MURDERS them. American Beauty is about a family that hates their lives so the whole family starts acting up. The Virgin Suicides is about horny teenage boys who thought that the sheltered girls next door were hot and mysterious when they all just hated their lives and wanted out. Thoroughbreds is about a girl who hates her stepdad for sending her to boarding school so she MURDERS HIM.

These movies, although few and far between, say a lot more about society and the concept of suburbia. They show how living in complacency and being comfortable always isn’t the right way to live. Of course, these movies take it a step above changing their lives and take drastic methods, but I find them interesting to compare and think about the idea of suburban life and why it’s setting can make for such movies. They comment on everyday people being uncomfortable with their normal lives and how they want more, which is why I think this genre exists. It can show the fantasy and reality of suburban life, especially for teens, and how taking ahold of their lives is scary and powerful, but so interesting to watch.