Written by: Tamara Jenkins
Starring: Alan Arkin, Marisa Tomei, Natasha Lyonne, Kevin Corrigan, Jessica Walter, Rita Moreno
Rating: [4/5]
Reaching the age where puberty hits creates enough issues for any teenage girl, which only gets amplified in its difficulty when all she has around her are her father and brothers, and she happens to move from location to location within weeks of each other. This becomes the reality for our protagonist as she must juggle this all under some unideal circumstances.
Attending the schools in the prestigious Beverly Hills requires Vivian (Natasha Lyonne) and her family to live in the proper zip code thus having them move from place to place in short-term housing to make it happen. As she develops her body in puberty, it begins to make her process everything she has going on with her life, including a visit from her cousin Rita (Marisa Tomei).
So much of this feature has a relatability for characters on all sides of the narrative mostly, as this film ultimately represents everyone just trying to make this situation work. Vivian just wants to live a life of some normality while her father Murray (Alan Arkin) seeks to set up his kids in the best way possible for their future, which means the best schools. It surrounds people who ultimately care about what transpires, but as one can imagine, things get a bit more complicated as things go along.
One way this feature presents such a refreshing tale comes from the honesty about Vivian and the way her body quickly develops. For teenage girls, this comes without warning and quite suddenly and Vivian experiences this all at fourteen years old. With no real maternal figure to speak of she just needs to figure everything out on her own thus presenting this authentic puberty experience for a teenage girl as she needs to figure out everything happening to her both on a hormone level and outwardly physically. One of the major plot points occurs when her breasts begin to develop and how it suddenly changes the way boys and men all look and treat her, which bordered on terrifying at times. This also occurs when she experiences getting her period and how that impacts this nomadic life she must live now.
When her cousin Rita comes to join the party with the help of her father’s money, things get even more complex in the differences they hold. Rita very much has received all she has ever wanted in life and acts that way when in the same space as Vivian, who must make things work with what her father can provide. They clash and bond in various ways allowing Marisa Tomei to have bundles of fun with the role given here serving almost as the antithesis of Vivian in certain ways but also someone fully comfortable with her body as opposed to the protagonist of the feature. This makes Rita, at such a young age, the maternal figure Vivian needs and never had.
When thinking of the title of this feature, it does raise a valid point about the importance of zip codes, especially when it comes to education. Based on the financial circumstances of the Abromowitz, it could be posited they have the funds made necessary to live outside of Beverly Hills but the school situation would have nowhere near the distinction. With schools receiving their funding from local taxes, one can see how an abundance of funds funnels their way into the school district of some of the wealthiest individuals in the world thus making the prospect of living in the supposed “slums” of a neighborhood like Beverly Hills much more appealing than on the higher end of some other random California city. This film leaves no confusion on the intention of Abromowitz and what he will do in order to set up his kids for the future.
Piercing together this entire feature we have the tremendous Tamara Jenkins who only directs a film once every decade but when she arrives on the scene she delivers something quite special. This feature serves as her feature film debut and makes quite a splash in the honesty of the story and the character dynamics she manages to pull off. She helps accentuate such an awkward time in the life of a teenage girl all wrapped up in this family comedy to poke at some real truths this feature seeks to illuminate. She develops this honesty in this whole circumstance that seeks to understand Vivian more than any of the other characters in the film making it so enriching because, especially in this era, the plight of the teenage girl did not receive much genuine coverage. This brutal social honesty has become quite the trademark for her as seen in her other two works in The Savages and Private Life as they respectively look into the elder care and child adoption arenas.
Beautifully honest and wonderfully comedic, Slums of Beverly Hills proves to be quite the knockout for all involved from Tamara Jenkins to a very early performance by Natasha Lyonne who does a marvelous job in her portrayal of this young girl going through puberty. Not many films have the comfort and confidence to speak on issues this feature does yet it handles it in such a palatable and comedic manner making it quite accessible to everyone. It demonstrates what a bright voice Jenkins has proven to be with her work and I cannot wait for what she will inevitably enlighten us with when she gets her opportunity to make her film of the 2020s.
Films with Josh 
