Film Review: The Darkest Minds Is YA At Its Glory
Synopsis: When teens mysteriously develop powerful new abilities, they are declared a threat by the government and detained. Sixteen-year-old Ruby, one of the most powerful young people anyone has encountered, escapes her camp and joins a group of runaway teens seeking safe haven. Soon this newfound family realizes that, in a world in which the adults in power have betrayed them, running is not enough and they must wage a resistance, using their collective power to take back control of their future.
The Darkest Minds is an adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s extremely successful YA novel, and has everything young girls and guys love about the genre. Obviously, you have your “Romeo and Juliet” dynamic thanks to star-crossed, super-powered Ruby (Amandla Stenberg) and Liam (Harris Dickinson). Add on a dystopian future where, once again, adults are killing young kids’ “joie de vivre”, and you are going to love this film.
I do not why this YA recipe works, but as I was watching The Darkest Minds, I kept on thinking of the first time I saw The Hunger Games. It was exciting, new, and I wanted to see if Katniss ended up with Gale. Nearly a decade later, I am ready to see if Liam and Ruby end up together. I got the same, “Hunger Games” feeling watching The Darkest Minds; prepping myself for another YA film series that will be taking my ticket money. Yet, we love this genre because of its odd innocence, and how it simultaneously feeds our fears of a horrible future, but our individual optimism that we can change that. This dynamic comes forward through Stenberg and Dickinson’s chemistry.
If I do not see, at least, a million tumblr feeds with an “I Heart Liam & Ruby” feed, I will be shocked. Stenberg and Dickinson make Ruby and Liam feel so giddily young, shy, and absolutely bewildered by their blossoming love. Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson completely understood what modern, young ladies are looking for in dreaming of a young guy who is strong, loyal, and patient with her as she discovers her own strength. Stenberg’s Ruby is one of the most powerful beings on earth, and she is saving Dickinson’s Liam. Turn back the clock 10 years ago, and this would not have been a common scenario: young girl saves her potential boyfriend. Yet, in the YA world, young women can fearsome warriors and hold a relationship, which is an idea that the world is still struggling with. This opens YA and The Darkest Minds to be a highly empowering genre that will bring in a following and a continuing film series.
I, literally, heard a few girls squeal at Ruby and Liam’s coy flirtations, and Stenberg and Dickinson make an, otherwise, brushed romance feel natural. Yet, it is not easy to transfer a book into a script, but Chad Hodge does it well. He plugs into the building need and like these young runaways have for each other, and continuously mentions that this is a world where kids do not have their parents. In a time of separating families, this constant note made me sad, and brought a weight to the loving, pseudo family these abandoned children make. Besides Ruby and Liam, you have Skylan Brooks’ Chubs, who is crackling with witty commentary and impressive deduction skills, and Miya Cech’s Zu, whom is adorable and fierce. As they all look out for each other, your heartstrings will be pulled at seeing young people have to pull the weight for adults’ poorer choices.
You might surprised how relevant The Darkest Minds is to our times. At 1 hour and 45 minutes, The Darkest Minds speaks to growing intelligence and empowerment of future generations. This film is 100% about kids reclaiming a world that has made them unsafe, which, again, is pretty relevant to these crazy, violent times. Yet, relevancy is the key to empowerment. As young women and men watch The Darkest Minds’ love story unfold on screen, they will also see: more faces that look like theirs (thank you diversity casting!), kids openly showing how brightly creative they are, and an honest mourning how adults/ government policies are not doing right by them. The Darkest Minds Comes Out In Theaters On August 3.
