Word: sues
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...regardless of class or race, can become a battered wife. In Stamford, Conn., a woman married to a Fortune 500 executive locked herself into their Lincoln Continental every Saturday night to escape her husband's kicks and punches. She did not leave him because she mistakenly feared he could sue for divorce on ground of desertion and she, otherwise penniless, would get no alimony...
These relationships are very male-oriented. If a guy wants a girl, he tells someone to tell her. If she agrees, she is his, body and all. Just anyone can't belong to this exclusive society; the two heroines--Debbie (Nell Schofield) and Sue (Jad Capelja)--come from good middle-class homes, do well at school, and consequently are initially classified as "nerds" (The word means the same in Australian.) The two aspire to join the surfer gang, shedding their morals by cheating on exams, getting drunk, and getting laid...
Throughout the film, the actors give low key performances. Beneath their sun-scorched faces, their eyes reveal their shiftlessness and their painful adolescence that makes them cruel to outsiders and frequently to each other. Capelja's Sue has a relatively easy transformation into a surfer girl--she gets hooked up to a relatively nice, scraggly guy who "screws" her on occasion. Capelja is mellow, a perfect foil for the more turbulent personality of Schofield's Debbie. Schofield faithfully portrays a confused teenager whose parents just don't understand her growing pains, and who reluctantly submits herself to the sexual advances...
...heroines perceptions are warped by their fascination with being accepted, and their desires for freedom are quelled not by authority figures like parents but by their own burgeoning awareness of their own needs--which do not necessarily include belonging to the cool surfer clique: We identify with Debbie and Sue because their struggles with independence are fresh and vivid, and at times terribly frustrating. Beresford doesn't condemn these characters. Rather he reaffirms our beliefs that puberty isn't just cuddling around a sparkling campfire...
...pass a motion that would place the binding Nuclear Free Cambridge question on the November ballot. The two sides differ on whether the council actually has the power to keep an initiative off the ballot, and the likely outcome, some observers say, is that the proponents will have to sue the council to keep the referendum alive...