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ALL I WANNA DO Send This Review to a Friend
After starting out as a teenage boarding school comedy, "All I Wanna Do" switches gears and, without getting very far away from its entertaining humor, turns into a plea for preserving all-girl education to keep young women from being overshadowed by the guys in co-ed institutions. The film is a happy surprise. Considering the audience it is aimed at, "All I Wanna Do" rises above that limited level to be amusing on many counts, and it has a charming cast of young actresses, as well as Lynn Redgrave playing the all-knowing headmistress who keeps the girls in check while harboring resentments of her own just waiting to find an outlet.
The setting is the posh Miss Godard's Prep School for Girls, the time 1963. We get to know the various students who spend most of their time trying to sidestep school rules. One girl is dying to lose her virginity, not as easy as it should be. There are the requisite gross-out scenes, one involving contraception, another involving boys getting drunk and puking all over each other.
Adept at scheming, the girls connive to thwart the merging of the school with a male prep school by wreaking havoc at a co-ed get-acquainted dance. Corny plot aside, many scenes are downright funny, and one can't help but root for the damsels to triumph. This is Sarah Kernochan's debut as director of a feature, although nearly 30 years ago she directed the first-rate, Oscar-winning documentary "Marjoe." She has numerous writing credits and wrote the script for "All I Wanna Do." Kernochan found a bright, young cast that includes Rachael Leigh Cook, Kirsten Dunst, Monica Keena, Merrit Wever and Heather Matarazzo, who was also so good in "Welcome to the Dollhouse."
In essence, this is a comedy with a feminist twist that reminds me of the goings-on in Britain's 1954 "Belles of St. Trinian's," with the militancy (although hardly the artistry) to be found in Lindsay Anderson's 1969 "If," which harked back to Jean Vigo's 1933 French (again, not to be artistically compared) "Zero for Conduct." I had a good time and think there's a youthful date audience that should appreciate "All I Wanno Do." A Redeemable Features release.
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