Unfortunately the entire movie is a victim of the story which seems to be composed of equal parts awkward moments, forced character development, and... not-quite self awareness.
It stumbles around before the road trip element actually kicks into gear and when it does it quickly arrives at what feels like a stock emotional hurdle: Gypsy encounters a woman who made it big, only to discover that she DIDN'T and is now a drunk in debt.
It's predictable, but this has some fairly understandable impact on Gypsy who freaks out and decides to bail before confiding in Clive that her mother didn't die, but left her and her dad.
It's actually a pretty emotional moment which surprisingly caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting that level of acting here, not the least of which as narratively justified.
It does quickly go downhill though as they pick up a runaway Amish guy who they paint up to look really awkward, Clive gets drunk in the middle of the day in a public park and says "I think you're the most beautiful man I've ever seen."
Egh... and to make matters worse is Amish Guy has the hots for Gypsy.
Sex immediately follows because ****, we can't take too much time to develop their relationships, we have to waste time on pointless side conversations.
Clive hooks up with a closeted gay Fratboy who we see imposing extremely homoerotic hazings on newbies and honestly I didn't mind it too terribly. It's a first time for both of them and it was sorta cute...
in an anonymous sex in a public restroom sorta way.
The scene is shortly followed by Fratboy's cronies vandalizing their car evidently out of personal regret and this could have been an interesting point in Clive's development, but it's never brought up again.
Meanwhile, Gypsy's ****ing Amish Guy and they're playing the romantic card hard especially when it's over and she says she'll be comfortable singing in New York "Now that I know you're gonna be there."
*eyeroll* Not only did JUST MEET THIS GUY and don't know a thing about him, but do you really want to tempt fate like that?
Nup. Gypsy can't catch a break, Amish Guy ran away from his wife and kids and immediately decides to go back after having sex with her.
Yeah, that's nice, don't forget about me, ya hear? You go back to your pregnant wife and remember that one-night stand you had with a random girl in a truck-stop restroom. Who could very well now be pregnant.
I'm sorry, THAT BOTHERS ME: If it's gay sex, I'm far less concerned about the characters making decisions without regard to significant consequences, but if it's
straight sex, then who's to say she doesn't get pregnant? What a ****load of ******** that'd be! I can already imagine Gypsy bitching and moaning about how "OH WOE IS ME, I HAD SEX AND NOW I'M PREGGERS, WHO COULD'VE POSSIBLY SEEN THAT COMING???"
It really irks the **** out of me.
Remarkably this scene is shortly followed by Gypsy lashing out at Clive for no longer being a virgin, because now he can be... the stereotype now...? WHAT? Why does having sex mean he's gotta pop on the rainbow buttons and turn the flamboyance up to 11? Because now that he's had sex he "no longer needs her" now. You're kind of a
bitch, Gypsy.
Sure enough, they eventually make up, Gypsy sings at her concert, and she decides to stay in New York... for no adequately explained reason and leave Clive with her dad's stolen busted up car... for no adequately explained reason... who's leaving... for no adequately explained reason.
I mean I think they try to handwave it by Clive taking it a bit hard when a couple goth goons call him out for pretending to know about a book they like and accusing him of being a poser but...
Seriously, this hits him harder than the first guy he's had sex with snuffing him for being gay?
"Poser"?
Alright kids, let step back, sit down, and let Omni tell it like it is:
Omnizoa's
Guide to Counterculture
F*ck 'em.
That's it! This is where this whole picture collapses!
You can't be Gypsy, dress all up in goth gear and then get emotionally triggered any time someone calls you a "freak", that means you're DOING IT WRONG! It means you can't handle the consequences of your actions! It means you're trying to break the status quo, but you also want everyone to accept it, THAT'S NOT HOW THIS WORKS, you can't have your cake and eat it too!
Clive rolls with the punches far better than Gypsy, but he also can't seem to come to grips with being called a poser.
Dude! You pretended to like a book you didn't know about, that's POSING, but you're also failing to realize that when these chuckleheads call you a poser, they're measuring you against a STANDARD.
The whole point is **** STANDARDS!
Do you're own thing! Have your own style! Wear whatever the **** you want regardless of what people think!
Whether it's punk, goth, visual kei, it doesn't matter.
You do you.
Everyone else does each other.