Jovanka Vuckovic

(On Cable TV, May 2020) Every film depends on some amount of contrivance in setting up its premise, but those contrivances are more clearly seen in some movies than others. As a low-budget Canadian post-apocalyptic film, Riot Girls never manages to get past the “but why?” stage of contemplating its reason to exist. Having a post-apocalyptic setting following a disease that wiped out much of the adult population may be interesting (although if COVID-19 could do something nice for us, it would be to get rid of the entire post-apocalyptic genre altogether), but by the time the film clearly spells out a slobs-versus-snobs (or rather punks-versus-jocks) teenage rift in a small BC town, it’s hard to avoid thinking that this is a joke and that we’re not getting it. There’s an obvious fakery at play here that becomes difficult to take seriously, even if director Jovanka Vuckovic’s intention was to deliver something to be consumed without too much thought. For instance, it doesn`t take long to start noticing the conspicuous absence of anyone under ten—having teenagers take care of orphaned infants and toddlers wouldn’t have been as cool or funny as what it’s going for. If it’s trying to be a comedy, it’s not particularly good at it: the gore and swearing and girl-punk music all feel very juvenile. What’s more, Riot Girls muddies its message by setting up an Orwellian regime in the jock world to be brought down, erring far more on laughable caricature than meaningful plotting—which, once again, just falls flat considering the rest of the film’s lack of humour. Meanwhile, the slob punks are… dying? Maybe. We don’t know—rigour and worldbuilding are really not this film’s favourite things. Missed opportunities all around, considering that Riot Girls has serious problems maintaining any basic suspension of disbelief.