"We learned to love that summer , We were 17…" plays as the credits
to
Nail Polish, a coming of age story set on the Joisey shore, scroll. Jane
Ainbinder's film is told through the lens of Allison, an awkward teen
who has recently lost her mother. Allison spends the summer before
college with her friend Becky, navigating the sexual terrain of beach
life. Becky, a free spirit with an ultimate ambition of going to
college, getting married, making babies, and retiring to Florida,
tries to guide Allison in the world of boys, giving advice on dress
and conversation. Despite the advice, Allison constantly mis-steps,
finding solace in a world of daydreams, a place where her dead
mother's gentle smile comes alive and guides her. Ainbinder accents
the separate worlds of Becky and Allison not only in their behavior,
but through their speech--Becky has a thick Joisey accent while
Allison does not.
The summer is supposed to help Allison heal from the loss of her
mother, but instead, it ends up bringing a new set of challenges. She
has a dead-end job at a diner, complete with a boss who berates her
for not correctly placing silverware in napkins, a cook whose sexual
innuendos disgust her, and a co-worker who fails to help her in a
quest to finally have sex (he passes out stoned on the beach).
Disappointment continues when Becky's mom, a former Hooter's
waitress, arrives and monopolizes Becky. The mother's arrival also
brings frat-like parties to the house, turning a potential haven into
beer bong central.
Allison, though, does ultimately find her way out ("her aim is true")
of this mess and out of her awkwardness. She meets Wayne, an
intellectual poser, who helps her transcend from a world of daydream
into reality. It is this brief love affair that teaches Allison
comfort and shows her how to finally draw on her own strength and
beauty as she moves from the awkward world of teen to adult.
Ainbinder's film perfectly nails the Joisey setting and its
characters. 80s music, with all its kitsch, pulses through the film
as the lights of the Seaside Heights' ferris wheel reminds the
viewers of the magical escape a summer at the shore provides. The
world of
Nail Polish is a glimpse at growing up, a time when
teenagers use cosmetics to try on different faces, to cover up their
awkwardness, and to help their passage into womanhood.