Director Report Card: Tamara Jenkins (1998)

Even among big movie buffs, Tamara Jenkins is not a name that's especially well-known. Since getting her start in the mid-nineties, she's only made three movies. Her name does not appear on many lists of well-known woman directors. (And she's not related to the previously covered Patty Jenkins.) While all of her movies have been well-received, it's hard to say that any of them are classics exactly. Yet each one of her highly autobiographic indie dramadies are absolutely worth seeking out. I like to think this brief Director Report Card will be shining a light on a filmmaker who deserves more attention.

1. Slums of Beverly Hills

Writer/director Tamara Jenkins was born in Philly to a Jewish father and an Italian-American mother. Her dad used to own a nightclub. After her parents separated, she lived with her father and brothers in Beverly Hills. Eventually, Jenkins' oldest brother would have to take custody of Tamara and her siblings, suggesting the situation was pretty dysfunctional. Years later, Jenkins would draw on these very personal memories for her feature debut. “Slums of Beverly Hills” is also about a Jewish girl living with her brothers and recently divorced, former nightclub owner father in Beverly Hills. While not especially popular upon release in 1998, “Slums of Beverly Hills” has attracted a dedicated audience of defenders over the years.

Vivian Abromowitz doesn't like her family much. Her father is a failed used car salesman,. Her older brother, Ben, is a hopelessly nerdy wannabe actor. Vivian has recently turned fourteen and suddenly grown large breasts, much to her embarrassment. Dad wakes her up in the middle of the night and moves the whole family unexpectedly into a cheap apartment complex in lower Beverly Hills. Around the same time Rita, Vivian's cousin and a recovering drug addict, arrives to live with them. Her father receives an allowance from his rich brother to make sure Rita is getting her life back on track. Vivian bonds with the troubled Rita and attempts to navigate the difficult waters of adolescence. 

“Slums of Beverly Hills” is a movie about familial bonds. The Abromowitz reluctantly refer to themselves as nomads on a few occasions. Because of his precarious financial straits, the family never stays in one place very long. This has certainly left Vivian in an awkward situation, further compounded by the dorkiness of her brothers. Ultimately, however, the Abromowitz only have themselves. The climax re-enforces the idea that these misfits really only have each other to rely on. The film comes full circle in a charming way, nailing this idea home without overdoing it too much. Vivian's family may be dysfunctional and she may not always like them but these are the people that love her and she loves them. 

Jenkins' film is also a coming-of-age story, touching on many of the themes you expect from the genre. Vivian is coming to grips with her changing body, with her growing sexuality. She is insecure about her breasts and the attention they draw, considering getting a reduction all throughout the film. She has a flirtatious relationship with Elliot, a teenage drug dealer living in the apartment. Obsessed with Charles Manson and believing himself to be way cooler than he is, Elliot is nevertheless attractive to Vivian because he's available and low-stakes. Rita introduces Vivian to her vibrator, which truly makes an impression on the girl. The film is a funny, touchingly candid portrayal of a young woman dipping her toes into the world of adult relationships.

“The Slums of Beverly Hills” was obviously more than a little autobiographical for Jenkins. The writer/director had star Natasha Lyonne wear the large, fake breasts in public, to give her a taste of what it would be like actually looking like that. So I suspect the subplot about Vivian's boobs reflects some personal experience of Jenkins'. Vivian is told that this is a trait she inherited from her (kept totally off-screen) mother. It's a part of her legacy. The film similarly approaches her Jewish heritage. Very little explicit attention is drawn to Vivian's cultural background. Yet so much about the characters – their appearance, their speech, their attitudes about fine dining – speaks to an inherent Jewishness. Much like her bra size, Vivian is clearly ambivalent to her background at first but eventually realizes that the things she carries with from her parents are part of who she is too. 

Jenkins tells this story with a light comedic touch. She orchestrates a number of amusing comedic episodes. “The Slums of Beverly Hills” is especially good at jokes that escalate, creating more laughs as they go on. When Rita introduces Vivian to her vibrator, that slowly becomes a dance number set to Parliament's “Give Up the Funk,” which then ends in just about the most awkward way imaginable. This is far from the only example of “Slums of Beverly Hills” mining the awkwardness of Vivian's transition into womanhood for laughs. When getting her period at her father's girlfriend's house, she's introduces to an antiquated tampon belt that is frankly horrifying. The stand-out comedic sequence of the film occurs when Rita is discovered unconscious in the apartment, more and more inconveniences piling atop each other in a likably mad cap fashion. 

If you watch “The Slums of Beverly Hills” for no other reason, I'd recommend watching it for Natasha Lyonne's lead performance. Filmed around the same time as “But I'm a Cheerleader!,” Lyonne makes a real impression. She adapts a totally convincing East Coast accent, making her stick out even more in the West Coast setting. From her stiff body language on down, she does everything she can to convey the character's awkwardness. Yet Vivian isn't defined solely by her teenage misery. Lyonne brilliantly brings Vivian's defiant side to life too, showing her as a character attempting to define herself in a constricting world. I don't know how Lyonne didn't become a huge star after a performance like this.

Jenkins didn't just find the right young actress to star in her film. The supporting cast is full of talented, familiar faces too. Alan Arkin is frequently hilarious as Vivian's dad. He's clearly a man that has created an elaborate mythology around himself in his head, to make up for the frequently pathetic reality. Arkin does a good job of showing both sides of this, as a man desperately attempting to prove himself but frequently held back by all the mistakes he's made. David Krumholtz is amusing as the frequently selfish older brother, who seems hopelessly optimistic about his own future. Kevin Corrigan does a good job of striking a balance between sleazy weirdo and genuinely concerned outsider as Elliot. Jenkins also includes amusing last act cameos from Carl Reiner and Rita Moreno.

Marissa Tomie is, as you'd probably expect, fantastic as Rita. She's manic when need be, while suggesting the intense angst the character feels all the time that pushes her towards such extreme actions. Yet I wish that subplot was a little more developed. We only ever get hints of Rita's story. She obviously has some sort of boyfriend, whom we never actually meet on-screen. He seems to randomly abandon her, exacerbating Rita's dependence on drugs. Rita's problems eventually get too much to handle, forcing her not-so-dramatic exit from the film. I wish we got a little more of her story. I understand that this is ultimately Vivian's tale but Rita's subplot is a little underdeveloped, when there was obviously plenty of material here to beef it up.

“Slums of Beverly Hills” is largely a comedy, with many dramatic moments. Yet one moment is clearly more severe than any of the others. Vivian's father and Rita have a conversation in the middle of the night, that Vivian spies on. While wallowing in his latest pity party, Murray reaches over and gropes Rita. It's not a moment that film draws a lot of attention to. It acknowledges that this previously lovable, if troubled, character did something monumentally shitty. Rita seems to shrug it off, Vivian has to accept it. That's a hard truth we all have to struggle with: Sometimes the people we love do fucked-up things. How do we grapple with that? The film doesn't have any concrete answers. We just have to live with it sometimes.

Tamara Jenkins clearly isn't just a strong writer. “Slums of Beverly Hills” is also a really strong visual film. The editing is razor sharp, often punctuating the comedic beats. The film also makes excellent use of its seventies setting. The production design is very good. The shag carpenter and puke-orange colors, that distinctive 1970s aesthetics, is perfectly captured. The fashion is similarly garish, in that immediately recognizable style. It's an obvious statement to say that the filmmaker actually lived through this decade. The amount of detail in every set, in all the surroundings, is apparent. 

That attention to period accuracy is also obvious in the soundtrack. The film is filled with the radio hits of the day. You'll recognize songs from Three Dog Night, the Bellamy Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, and Perry Como. The curation of songs is generally very good. Less memorable is the score. Rolfe Kent's score is a little too on-the-nose, sounding exactly like what you'd expect a quirky but character-driven nineties indie to sound like. Some of the film's moments probably called for music that was a little less goofy. 

”Slums of Beverly Hills” was not exactly a break-out hit of the nineties indie movie scene. It got a little loss in the shuffle at the time. However, the film received healthy reviews and even grabbed a couple of nominations from various awards. Fans would eventually circle around the movie, largely thanks to cable television screening. That's how I first saw it, catching an early-in-the-morning showing on the Bravo Channel back when that network still showed classy movies. It's always stuck with me. “Slums of Beverly Hills” is a gem, a beautifully acted and composed comedy with lots of heart and a number of other things on its mind too. While not groundbreaking necessarily, it succeeds at almost everything it sets out to do. [Grade: B+]