I'm a man. Previously a boy.
Except for certain advances in communications technology made since 1982, I had basically the exact same experience as the girl in the movie (with all the genders reversed, of course).
For people who have been through an experience as vindictive, drawn-out, thorough, and unrelenting as the experience suffered by the girl in the movie, this will be a movie-watching experience both very painful and very valuable.
Perhaps even more so for those of us who didn't have a parent as ideal and understanding as the one in the film. But, for the purposes of the film and its messages, that character is well-designed and serves many useful purposes.
This film covers a lot of bases in a lot of ways. It's an impressive accomplishment, seeing as it's impossible to really do justice to the subject matter in the space of a standard film. Very, very impressive.
I like hard-hitting, gritty dramas like Requiem For A Dream, Bad Lieutenant, and that sort of thing (also, harsh black comedies like Shallow Grave, Bitter Moon, etc.). This film hit me harder than any of those.
Girls can be as visibly and simply and physically violent as the stereotypical boys (e.g., the tormentors and killers of Reena Virk in British Columbia, Canada). And boys can be as invisibly and complexly and non-physically violent as the stereotypical girls.
It's not a simple world out there. And it has a lot of barbarians in it. Male and female. And they don't all fit within the usual gender roles.
There are plenty of masculine, heterosexual evil boys who behave like evil girls -- because they know it's tougher to get caught that way and that the damage done is deeper; in other words, the smarter ones use more complex and indirect methods. And everyone is far less aware of them than the big, dumb, loud, physically-violent ones -- indeed they likely never get caught because their male victims wouldn't be manly/masculine/tough/cool/honourable/etc. if they were to complain about it or admit to being bothered by it or to cry about it, would they? Just show me all the girls who lust after and fall in love with men who cry about getting bullied. Oh, that's right, there aren't any -- they're too busy fawning over the thoughtful, intelligent, emotionally-literate, understanding Alpha-male goons who are beating those other guys up. Sorry, I forgot.
It's frequently unlike the stereotype of "boy beats guy up, and it's over -- simple." And in those cases, it's particularly damaging when you've been socialized into the idiotic philistine social orthodoxy of boys not being allowed to cry, and boys have to keep a stiff upper lip and hide and suppress their feelings.
Anyway.... the film accomplishes its goals and its messages beautifully. 9-outta-10.
