Whatever

Anna Stockhard is a teenager from New Jersey, who is about to leave High School and enter the adult world. She wants to get in to the coveted art school Coopers Union in New York, but sex, drugs and Rock'n'Roll are too alluring in the small town that she comes from. Anna and her too party-hardy friend Brenda meet a couple of older guys with a criminal past, which leads to some complications.
It is early eighties and the music people listen to is David Bowie, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, The Jam, Roxy Music etc., often on typical outdoor-parties with loads of alcohol, where all the teen-agers in the neighbourhood gather. Here the tough, but still vulnerable, Anna is forced to fend off the pressure that she is put under, with the expectations of her being and acting like everyone else.
Skoog portrays Anna's life from a female perspective, and she has managed to create nuanced characters, who are neither stereotypical or glorifies the teenage years. It's quite rare that anyone depicts the conflicts that often occur with young women in the stages between childhood and adulthood, made especially problematic by the unclear signals that their
surroundings give regarding how a young woman should be.
Whatever's executive producers,
the famous indie-company Circle Fi Ims, has produced among other things the first fi Ims from the Coen brothers, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossingand Barton Fink.
TORUN BJURMAN