Our teenage years are essentially made up of mimicry. We leave the nest of our parents, flocking together, or perhaps to another, taken under the wing under someone we would do anything to be. In Marisa Silver’s Old Enough Lonnie (Sarah Boyd) is twelve, supposedly naive, and well-off, enamored by the life of rebellious Karen (Rainbow Harvest), only fourteen, but believing herself to be much older. Lonnie learns to skip her summer camp, shoplift, and lie to get away with anything from Karen, who gains honesty, and grows slightly ashamed in the presence of the younger girl.
What is most striking of the habits Lonnie picks up is Karen’s Catholicism. She believes that whatever she does, she must repent, and that this will undo each deed methodically. This fascinates Lonnie, raised fairly agnostically, who is not used to the rituals of confession. It is not much that Karen believes in a god with power to punish her for her sins, but she is staked into the habits of admitting to these misdeeds.
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She doesn’t change her actions, and only seems to believe that they are bad if she does not admit them to some higher power, which is vastly different from Lonnie’s honesty. She may be impulsive at times, but she struggles to lie even without this initial belief in a higher power, because this is the rhythm by which she was raised. A funny juxtaposition is that the closer Lonnie gets to Karen’s Catholicism, the less clothes she wears, almost an indignation to the customs of this religion that Karen hardly follows either.
It’s always interesting to note how this film can be read as one of a young kid realizing her attraction to girls as well. Lonnie is a tomboy, which in the 80s was often shorthand in media to code a lesbian character. She follows Karen wide-eyed and fascinated at times, forgiving because of the thrill this companionship offers. She wants so badly to appear old enough, wanting to seem mature and ready to take on the world despite being only twelve, yet she draws the line at the attention of boys.
Though the main young gentleman who is after her is far too old, and the scene in which he kisses her is incredibly uncomfortable, she says she is not interested in a boyfriend, even those of her own age. Of course, she’s too young for these matters, but it’s interesting that her performance of maturity stops when it is no longer for Karen’s attention.
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This feels like a more subtextual prototype for Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies. In which the tomboy, two years younger, pines after an older, aloof girl who is seen as “easy” by the world, and is the unlikely companion of her for a summer. Both end in a knowing smile as they part, and both feature a misunderstanding over one’s trust of the men in her life.
They both depict that young yearning so painfully, the temporary nature of summer life, and what would happen if that girl you stared at out the window answered back, and needed you just as much as you did to her. One girl has not yet been taken into the world that exists through the gaze of men, while the other is gazing longingly at this innocence, and craving a return to the safety of youth.
Old Enough is incredibly simple, yet it works in its ease because of how real it is. The opening Hallmark charm gives way to an honesty of how young girls look up to each other for an example, creating these close bonds for short spans of time, fitting for just that moment in life.
Teens learn from each other more than anything else socially, as they will enter the world together. And they will be creating together the society in which they will grow old in.
Old Enough is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
