It’s Halloween night 1997. Corey (Toby Wallace)—our resident lamb in wolf’s clothing—meets up with his friends, headed by the alpha-bully, Jango (Justin Holborow), for one last night of skateboards, mischief,
Set in the late nineties, Nicholas Verso’s surreal drama is a masterful coming-of-age story about the power of friendship and the pitfalls of growing up. The second Australian film we’ve covered on Of Joy That Kills so far, Boys in the Trees (2016) is packed to the brim with teenage angst and a grungy late nineties sound and aesthetic. So if you happen to be a nineties-baby, be prepared for a trip back to your most awkward, angsty memories of growing up. Verso’s Boys in the Trees is definitely an unapologetic indulgence in his own teenage nostalgia; nevertheless, the emotional undercurrents of the film provide a universal portrait of the adolescent experience, which is sure to touch any heart.
“We’re teenagers. Nobody gets us; that’s half the fun.”
Each of the film’s leads represents an adolescent stereotype, which must be overcome through the course of this hallucinatory Halloween night. The most important clichés are former friends Corey and Jonah. McGrath’s Jonah is the stereotypical ‘loser’ whose failed attempts at finding a place with the cool kids—in this case, a skate-gang called the Gromits—drive him further into ridicule and isolation. Across from him, Wallace’s Corey is the classic cool kid with a hidden heart and secret (photography) dreams too big for his small town. Less central character’s fill out the portrait of teenage clichés. Holborow’s Jango is the typical tortured bully who mitigates his own pain and confusion via violence and control, and Mitzi Ruhlmann’s Romany—the lone female lead— plays an enlightened cool girl whose blasé attitude serves to conceal her own dreams of escape. Through these characters, Verso uses the act of masking on Halloween night to magnify the everyday masking the kids employ.
Boys in the Trees keeps the symbolism simple and straightforward enough for anyone to follow so I won’t go heavily into detail in analyzing the types of dress-up the various characters play, although it’s certainly an interesting and important topic. In the film, dressing up for Halloween serves as an enhancement of the daily act of finding and expressing identity. The most important costumes are those of Corey and Jonah. Corey dresses as a wolf, which is symbolic of his membership in the pack of bullies. Jonah, who is masked as a ghost, wears a red hoodie reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood, marking his victimization. Throughout the film, Jonah acts as the ghost of Corey’s past in a clear Dickensian allusion to A Christmas Carol. While the Gromit’s follow suit with Corey in their choice of “scary” masks that symbolize their violent brand of masculinity, it is Romany who has the most interesting mask among minor characters. Though she is shortly seen wearing a plague mask, her true mask is the grunge make up she wears on a daily basis. It is in a vulnerable scene where she is shown removing this makeup that the film’s emphasis on unmasking becomes touchingly apparent. In fact, every moment of unmasking in this film seems tinged with an overriding poignancy.
“If you want to run with the wolves, you’ve got to kill a few lambs.”
Bullying is also a major topic in Verso’s film. For Corey, the story is a redemptive arc where Jonah as Little Red Riding Hood shows him the error of his ways and helps him shed his outer Big Bad Wolf (like the ghosts of x help Scrooge stop being a scrooge). The major issue in this arc is in the amount of damage Corey has to cause and the amount of suffering Jonah has to endure before Corey’s lesson can be learned. It is both frustrating and problematic to watch a victim’s extreme suffering serve as a bully’s absolution. Nonetheless, the poignant complexity of this male friendship is a major highlight of the film. Even at his worst, Corey is a reluctant bully, and Jonah is an unwavering friend who continues to rest his hope upon the innocent, childish core Corey constantly fights to suppress. It’s Corey’s best friend, Jango, who is meant to function as the true villain of this story, but in a film focused on unmasking, even he cannot exist without a suggestion of growth and development.
In many ways, Jango’s part in the film allows for the most interesting interpretation because it is his relationship with Corey and Jonah which carries the films LGBTQ subtext. With a heavy focus on male relationships, Boys in the Trees presents a lot of ambiguity as far as nature of love expressed between men is concerned. Jonah is small and underdeveloped in comparison to his male peers and his identification with Little Red Riding Hood adds a dose of femininity to his character. Though his sexuality is never discussed, he is the clear victim of gay-bashing, and Jango is his key tormentor in all things. In this way, Jango’s bullying of Jonah is suggestive of a “the lady doth protest too much” trope. Significantly however, for both Jonah and Jango, the ambiguity of their sexuality lies predominantly in their relationship with Corey, whose own masculinity is amplified by the addition of his relationship with the one female character in the film. Jonah’s own love for Corey is cloaked in the innocence of their childhood friendship. Still, scenes of them embracing, though they primarily cast Corey as a protector of the much smaller Jonah, add to the ambiguity of their relationship. Interestingly, for Corey, running away from Jonah (and his bullies) is what leads him into a friendship with Jango. Jango is the polar opposite of Jonah. Where Jonah is a small bullied teen with dark hair, Jango is a tall, blond bully. At his side, and as his second in command (the mum to Jango’s dad as far as the Gromit’s hierarchy is concerned) Corey gains protection from Jango’s “law of the jungle” attitude. Thus, much in the same way that Corey acts as a protector for Jonah, Jango is the protector for Corey. Jango’s protection however, comes at a cost.
Jango’s affections—which are particularly violent and jealous—require full loyalty and commitment. Jango’s pushes Corey into acts of violence and destruction in a clear attempt to derail his relationships with anyone else. Though it is clear that Jango sincerely loves Corey, he is unable to express this in a healthy manner. The degree of violence and self-hatred with which Jango reacts when he and Corey get into an argument caused by his fear of losing his best friend is a clear sign of his inability to deal with emotions. Whether Jango’s aggression ultimately stems from a deeper affection he is unwilling to admit, or a lack of acceptable outlets for affection within male friendships is unclear. I like to think that when Jango finally, though awkwardly, offers Corey a shoulder to cry on, that it signals a potential for Jango’s emotional development. That the Gromits remove their mask as they watch this encounter certainly suggests that the Gromits as a whole are beginning to shed their roles are tormentors.
Overall, and despite being heavy on subtext and symbolism, the film is neither difficult to interpret nor heavy handed in it’s execution. Where the Boys in the Trees truly shines is in the overarching emotionality it achieves. Halloween is used to create a dark mood and provide a vehicle for surreal and fantastic elements. This darkness is enhances by grungy style and hard rock soundtrack. True, the dialogue can feel bit forced at times, but that is a minor flaw to an overall stunning film. Helmed by gritty realism, this dark and emotional coming-of-age drama is a satisfying nostalgia trip that’s bound to break your heart.
“Sometimes you have to pull back a piece of reality when it gets in the way.”
This post about Boys in the Trees is part of October’s mood series and one of several movies which unfortunately couldn’t make our 31 Days of Horror movie list (mostly because it’s a drama film set on Halloween, not a horror film set on any day including Halloween).
As always, let me know if you’ve seen the movie or plan to watch it and what you though of it. You can always reach me here, on IG or on Twitter. I’d love to hear from you.
