MAGGI PICAYUNE

The inaugural and probably most famous Judy Blume novel finally makes its debut on the big screen. I figured it had been at least a made-for-TV thing a couple times but Blume had repeatedly said no to every attempt until meeting James L Brooks and Kelly Fremon Craig. Good thing she agreed to them, Edge of Seventeen was a great movie so these two were the perfect combo to make Margaret happen.

A little backstory for me. I’ve never read the book. When I was a growing up as a tweener in the Seventies, it was a girl book. Contrary to the popular media portrayals of parochial schools, I don’t recall any of the six I attended ever banning a book. Hell, The Chocolate War was an assigned book for sophomores at Strake Jesuit. My female classmates still talked about Margaret in hushed tones. Obviously, I didn’t care and figured whatever they were reading was dumb compared to the movie novelizations of SciFi I preferred when I wasn’t playing kickball. By adulthood, I read what the gist was and thought, that’s fine. The primary topics are embarrassing yet they’re not obscene. All of us undergo what the protagonist is experiencing, especially the doubt and fear.

As for the plot, I think we’re mostly familiar with it after 50-plus years so I’ll not bother. The director/screenwriter did add some plot lines for Margaret’s parents, otherwise, I think it would be a rather short movie.

I did love it overall. I’m mostly grateful with the decision to keep the original setting of 1970 while not overdoing it on the trends, fashion, etc. to scream at the audience, “Look! It’s the early Seventies!” What they often do for the Eighties, everybody wears way too much neon. Margaret definitely belongs in what I call The John Hughes Canon, especially with casting children close to the ages they should be versus Hollywood finding young adults resembling kids (Ralph Maccio!). Craig did a fantastic job capturing the cruelty, the peer pressure, the wonder, etc. of the age too. Nobody is precocious or smarter than the adults as per SitComs. By staying true to the time period, us Gen Xers can remember the world that was before the Internet and cell phones, hopefully it won’t bore younger people accustomed to instant gratification and their short attention spans via TikTok.

Alamo Extras: Someone made a video for “What is Life”; ads for feminine products (’nuff said there); trailers for Now & Then and Mean Girls; Japanese TV involving a girl group who I guess young women can ask questions; PSA on “when it is happening”; people being asked on the street how they feel about the issue the movie will raise; the best one was a short educational film involving a young woman experiencing the change and how her boyfriend…Jonathan Banks! reacts. Yes, Jonathan Banks, aka Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul along with numerous other heavies he’s played over the years.