Gossip (2000)
Director: David Guggenheim
Starring: James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, Kate Hudson
Primary genre: Teen
Secondary genre: Psychological
Third genre: Thriller
Just like the 80s and 90s, the early noughties outputs used so many fashionably cool things back then that directors forgot how such approaches would tie their film to a now dated era. Movies of the new millennium after all, tried really hard to distance themselves from the previous decades, particularly genre movies (see “Dissecting action: the 2000s”) for better or worse.
“Gossip”, a teen psychological thriller seeking to discuss the power of malicious rumors is a prime example of this trend. From its (literally) flashy opening credits and hairstyles to the characters’ wardrobe and muted but multi-colored neon-ish production design, its all there to remind you the glories to trying to be too cool for school. And this is exactly what our main trio of “heroes” are doing. Living in an expensive loft (as students mind you), they attend some vague class of morality before getting wasted in hip surroundings and having sexual encounters with contemporary peers. The plot is wrapped around them and their university exercise that sees the social experiment of how an initial rumor unfolds and evolves within a campus microcosm. Despite a promising start, the execution and resolution is cookie cutter unafraid of diving into fascinating psychological territory. Gossip can make a man or break a man and whoever controls it, can yield unprecedent social power. This is great stuff indeed.
“People pass a bunch of stories around in a tribe and finally someone writes ‘em down, and you have religion.”
Yet, the inevitable clash between the trio is banal: regret, paranoia, disgust and manipulation are present and director David Guggenheim and his screenwriters Gregory Poirier and Theresa Rebeck waste this opportunity to unpack these characters walking through the plot towards a rather ludicrous (and probably utterly predictable?) climax inspired by the M. Night Shyamalan’s cabinet of ideas. A true auteur would have made this into a compelling story that wishes to explore dynamically altered interactions based on pressing external social factors - masterpieces like “Haine” (1995) or Haneke’s “Hidden” (2005) quickly come to mind.
Of course, we are far from the quality channels of French cinema. This concept deserves a bold, second attempt, especially today with all the overabundance of social media influence, seductive technology, faux determinism and lighting paced tribalism which prevail above the walls of factual logic not just waterfalling the audience over with a parade of hot late 90s-early 2000s heartthrobs. The performances are nothing to write home about either with a pre-Cersei Lena Headey (and her unflattering haircut), an introverted Norman Reedus and a soon-to-be-Cyclops James Marsden who is the one closest to emote some sort of sleazoid charisma. There is also a pre “Almost Famous” (2000) Kate Hudson in a pedestrian role solely existing for the purpose of the plot lacking any distinct attributes or enough personality for anyone to really care about what will happen to her.
“Gossip” is not as spicy as it thinks it is, particularly when it is seeing through a modern lens. More of a boring chatter at the back of a classroom, once you hear it, sorry, see it once, you won’t have to bother with it again. It’s good for a night in though. But then again, this is a flick where you cannot find big gaping flaws in it due to its painful mediocrity.
Neither silent or deadly
+Promising cast
+Interesting concept
+Flashy direction
-…tying the film to a dated era
-Superficial exploration
-Unlikeable and one dimensional characters
-Suffers from a gotcha! script