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🎙️ EPISODE 319: 02.11.2021
This one got off on the wrong foot and never truly found a balance between the absurdity, the coming-of-age, the humor and the humanity, though it only narrowly missed during a stretch in the second act. Leaning way too hard on quasi-Edgelord stuff, the supposed trick (and ultimate undoing) being the wrench that our dirty protagonist is but a teen girl. Flower opens with high school junior Erica, played by Zoey Deutch, giving a cop a blowjob. When he asks where she learned to do that, she responds, "middle school." That her friends are waiting outside with their smartphone cameras on to catch this perv in the act in order to blackmail him out of a few hundred dollars is the film's answer/excuse for showcasing this in the first place. But she's still a minor; she's still sucking these guys off to completion. |
Part of the rub is that she loves it. She draws detailed portraits of all the dicks she sucks and keeps a log of how much blackmail cash she's earning. In a way, it's a pretty stock black comedy setup. In fact, the money she's saving is to literally bail her deadbeat father out of jail (daddy issues, anyone?). And look, I realize I'm probably coming off a little prudish here, but in a sense the LoLz don't go far
enough. This is a movie that's towing the line between a true dark comedy and a coming-of-age drama with real emotional weight. It's a doomed path and the film doesn't pull it off despite solid performances from all involved, especially Kathryn Hahn and Tim Heidecker as Erica's mom and step-dad.
That's why
Flower is fundamentally broken beyond repair, but it's also lazy from a plotting and pace perspective as well. That it ends with Erica (a virgin despite her countless hummers) having sex with and falling in love with her step-brother is about as stupid as Adam Scott's portrayal of a child molester/not a child molester/no actually a
serial child molester. Still, in spite of everything, it's salaciousness is the selling point, poorly executed or not1. It kept my attention. I can't ignore that even if I wanted to.
Two leftover "Fun Facts" that didn't fit neatly into the review:
1. This was co-written and directed by Henry Winkler's son.
2. Jake Johnson is "in" this film as the prison dad, but we only see him in photographs and never onscreen because if you can be forever associated with something on this level, even tangentially, you gotta do it.
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