MEAN GIRLS with a touch of SAVED! – New Brunswick style.

For those unfamiliar with New Brunswick, NB is one of the Atlantic east coast provinces of Canada.  Filmed in and around the town of Shediac (actually the lobster capital of the world) in NB, THESE GIRLS, the teen film based on the play by Vivienne Laxdal and directed by John Hazlett is actually a surprisingly energetic and clever little film that covers all corners.

THESE GIRLS are Keira (Caroline Dhavernas), Lisa (Holly Davis) and Glory (Amanda Walsh).  While babysitting, Glory sleeps and falls for older hunk Keith Clark (David Boreanaz).  The story is simple enough.  Keira and Lisa find out and each take their turn to seduce Keith.  So to sort things out, the three share him out on a schedule. 

The film is better than it sounds as THESE GIRLS captures the atmosphere of Shediac from the summer camping grounds to the beach backyards.  (I have spent a week in Shediac some 15 years ago.) More importantly, the film strikes a realistic note.  It deals with the teens’ real sexual desires and urges with their friendship and jealousy on the side and how THESE GIRLS learn to cope with all of them.  The script never judges and neither does in play sympathy to any one of them.  The locals are dumb and trashy but a few like Keira’s dad (Bill Rowat) wants something better in life for his daughter.  The film takes a strong narrative tone from Keira’s voiceover from the start to ending frame.  Keira matures, Glory is the hopeless romantic and Lisa is just plain immature and funny.  At one point, Lisa is scolded that she behaves like a child, to which she remarks: I am one!  THESE GIRLS carry a strong feminine slant but the males, though mainly goofy and useless, do have their say as well, helped with Hazlett, a male being the director.  Though one might initially argue where Keith’s wife, Sue (Mckenzi Scott) is in all of this, Sue does appear in a strong supporting role in the last third of the film.

THESE GIRLS contain one of the funniest seduction scenes – when Lisa interrupts Keith while gardening in the front yard.  It shows Hazlett has a feel for good Canadian comedy having worked with Calgarian Gary Burns in THE SURBURBANATORS and KITCHEN PARTY, two of my favorite Canadian comedies.  The film also gives new meaning to the terms babysitting and hoeing the plot.

In THESE GIRLS, all the characters are energetic, colorful, young and daring.  With the lively music, the film rubs off wonders on the audience.  Hazlett’s camera is also quick to catch a rare smile of victory of Keira’s dad or dumb looks on Keith’s biker friends.  THESE GIRLS works like an east-coast PORKY’S, but with better intentions.