Wow this one hits close to home as author Bret Easton Ellis has signed on to adapt the novel Downers Grove for the big screen. Written by Michael Hornburg, "Downers" centers on Chrissie Swanson, a paranoid high school senior for whom graduating has become a matter of life or death. The film takes place at Downer's Grove high School in Illinois, right where I grew up. The synopsis is short but inside you can find a longer one thanks to Amazon. Ellis, whose novels "American Psycho," "The Rules of Attraction" and "Less Than Zero" have been adapted for the big screen, has his sixth novel, "Lunar Park," in development as a feature film with Palm Star Pictures. His novel "The Informers," which inspired the film adaptation.
Disquieting in its timeliness, Hornburg's (Bongwater) second novel is a tale of violence among high school cliques and a gritty portrait of adolescent pluck amid morbid chaos. Narrator Crystal Methedrine Swanson is on the verge of graduating from Downers Grove High in Illinois. Chrissie, as her friends call her, has a lot to deal with on the home front: her father has left without a trace, her brother is addicted to heroin and her mother is dating an increasingly sinister new beau. Chrissie and her boy-crazy, sexpot best friend, Tracy, also worry about "the curse" of their high school: each year before graduation, somebody in the senior class dies in a bizarre way. One year a math whiz killed several people in the parking lot before turning the shotgun on himself; other graduations were marred by suicide, drowning and several drunk-driving accidents. After Chrissie beats up a jock who tried to rape her at a party, she becomes terrified that she will be the next statistic. The jock and his buddies pursue an escalating plot of revenge beginning with a vicious car chase. They also set fire to Chrissie's school locker and strew dead dogs on her lawn. Adding to the plot twists of this teenybopper drama is Chrissie's obsession with a 26-year-old mechanic--cum-race-car driver named Bobby. Tough, insensitive and super-cool, Bobby is the kind of character only a teenage girl could love. Hornburg's prose is rife with adolescent jokes and lingo, some of it hilarious and sharp. At other times the humor wears thin, especially because Chrissie's youthful wisecracking does not segue smoothly into passages of soul-searching introspection. Yet Chrissie's relentlessly vernacular teenage voice takes up residence in the reader's mind, establishing her vulnerability and demonstrating the courage she shows on her stressful road to maturity.
I met Ellis years ago during a Glamorama book tour. He's a douche. Now Chuck Palahniuk, there is a guy who they need to adapt more films for. He's totally approachable and one of the nicest authors I ever had the opportunity to meet.
Comments Page 1 of 1 | You have to be logged in to comment! If you don't have an account register now for free! Your account allows you to post comments and reviews, upload videos and images, access or our forums, write personal blogs, and maintain your profile.
Print Story
Send to a Friend
