Review by Amos Lassen
By: Amos Lassen
"Anthem of a Teenage Prophet"
Foreseeing
Amos Lassen
"Anthem" is the story of Luke (Charles Monaghan) a teenager who foresees the death of his new best friend Stan (Alex MacNicoll), the most popular guy in school. When this feeling bec...
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"Anthem of a Teenage Prophet"
Foreseeing
Amos Lassen
"Anthem" is the story of Luke (Charles Monaghan) a teenager who foresees the death of his new best friend Stan (Alex MacNicoll), the most popular guy in school. When this feeling becomes reality, Luke must deal with being called "The Prophet of Death" and regarded as a freak by the entire town. As if that is not enough, he's fallen in love with Faith (Peyton List) who just happens to be Stan's girl and he's on the outs with his childhood best friend Fang (Grayson Gabriel). The premonitions just keep coming as if adolescence is not enough to deal with. "Anthem" balances the teenage experience of confusion, anxiety and rage with exceptional moments of clarity, self- discovery and human connection and explores the need to belong, the isolation of youth and the powerful mixture of fear truth and noise that is inside us all.
Based on the award-winning novel by Joanne Proulx, Anthem of a Teenage Prophet is a coming-of-age story with a twist that nails the timeless feeling of adolescence. Hormonal and funny, exhilarating and wise, Anthem intimately examines and amplifies the powerful mixtape of angst, hope, music, and noise that plays inside every teenager's head.
Set in 1997 in Stokum, Michigan on the shores of Lake Erie, we meet Luke Hunter who appears to be is a typical small-town teenager. ?He smokes weed, skateboards, listens to hip hop and secretly lusting after his best friend's girl. Luke is torn between his stoner friends, including his childhood best friend Fang, and his new best friend Stan, the popular guy who has everything Luke doesn't including the hottest girl in town.
Luke's two worlds come together one night when Stan gets high with Luke and his other friends. Luke has a disturbing premonition that Stan will be hit by a car and killed. Everyone laughs at this until the next morning, when Stan dies just as Luke predicted.
Luke then isolates himself, keeping everyone including his parents, Fang, and even Faith-at arm's length, and tells no one that the premonitions keep coming.
The media moves on to an exposé of gay men cruising in a local park and while this is unrelated, Luke and Faith grow closer, while Fang pulls further away and accuses Luke of moving in on his dead friend's girl. Luke angrily denies this while not understanding what's really going on with Fang. Luke and Faith are falling in love until Faith accidentally calls him "Stan" at the school dance and this confirms his worst fears that the only reason that Faith is with him is to keep Stan's memory alive. As Luke if filled self-doubt, he foresees Fang's death. Luke enlists Faith's help and drags Fang out to a massive stone cliff on the outskirts of town that for a young Fang represented the ultimate conquest. Faith nervously watches as Fang and Luke scale the enormous rock face. As they drive home, Fang reveals the secret that caused him to retreat: he is gay. He is, in fact, one of the men caught cruising in the park and is about to be publicly outed. With his friendship with Luke restored, Fang is able to face his worst fear--- that life will end when the story breaks. Luke realizes that his visions are not the curse he believed them to be, but a life-affirming gift, that allowed him to save Fang's life. Director Robin Hays says that his film with death in a way that really celebrates life.
It is not easy being a teenager. It is quite a difficult journey and many have a hard time coping and figuring things out. There is drama throughout the film as well as emotional crises but it is, in effect, a comedy, albeit one that deals with a difficult subject in a way a lot of films don't.