“I think it’s an unconventional love story. It is dark – I hope that you want James to find happiness, but ultimately, what he does is wrong and disturbing.”
A lazy description of Code Blue: A Love Story — where high school loner James develops an infatuation with the exciting, rebellious Marla — might emphasize the phrase “teenage necrophilia.” But director Susan Dynner’s offshoot of the T.S.O.L. song (and subsequent short story) of the same name is interested in exploring deeper themes of scorned love, angst and yes, all of the melodrama that comes from being young, impressionable and often misguided youths.
With the help of Jack Grisham of the Long Beach-based band, Dynner’s Code Blue marks another step in a career already steeped in punk rock, from her teenage roots photographing the Dead Kennedys and Minor Threat to directing 2007’s Punk’s Not Dead. I talked to the UW-Madison alum for our “5 Questions” series:
1. You’re pulling from a short story that’s based on that T.S.O.L. song. In his Kickstarter video, Jack Girsham (who writes and produces) says that frustration was the impetus behind his original song, and I would argue that Code Blue the film, is working beyond that central idea, into areas of rebellion and even attraction. How much did you find yourselves thinking about that original idea behind the song for this project?
Although Jack wrote the short story based on his song, “Code Blue”, we didn’t use the song at all as a guide for the film. Jack called me and said that he had written a short story that he thought would make a good film, and asked if I’d be interested in directing it. After reading the story and deciding to move forward and make the film, Jack and I worked on the screenplay directly from the short story, as if that were the original source material. For Jack, it’s personal, so I wanted to stay as true to the short story as possible. Our main theme for the film was that of connection. James (the lead character in the film) is a kid who doesn’t really fit in – he feels ignored at home, isolated in school, and when he meets Marla, it’s the first time he feels a connection with someone, and he longs to feel that connection again. James is definitely rebellious, and the connection he feels could just be attraction, but to him (as a teenager) it feels much deeper. I think the song is similar thematically. I think when Jack mentions frustration was the impetus behind the song, it’s because he isn’t connecting to anyone and he feels so alone. Since he wrote both the song and the story based on the song, I have to assume that the general ideas/intentions behind both are the same.
2. Were there any visual elements of the Code Blue illustrated story that you brought into the picture?
I think if there were any visual elements of the story that I brought into the film from the illustrations, it was either very basic stuff, or unintentional. I paid attention to the way the characters were described and tried to cast accordingly, but that’s about it. I know in the illustrations, Marla is blue in the mortuary scene and the way we lit the scene was very blue, but that was mainly because the location had a really cool x-ray machine, and when it was on, the light it cast was blue. I thought it would be effective if that was our only source light as it provided a great creepy and moody atmosphere.
3. As James’s teacher, Andy Dick’s great in this, and he’s not his usual, fiery nasally self. How did you get him?
I thought it was very important that we cast someone funny as Mr. Evers. I wanted the audience to know they were allowed to laugh and that they didn’t need to take everything so seriously since the story does get dark. Andy was on the top of our list. He just has to open his mouth and he’s funny. I asked my casting director to make him an offer, and although he thought it was a long shot, he did. Andy asked that I call him to discuss the film before he signed on, and we had a great conversation, after which Andy said it sounded like it would be a fun project and he’d love to do it. When he got to set, he asked if I wanted him to go directly by what was written on the page, or if he was able to also improvise. Of course, when you hire Andy Dick, you want him to improvise – he’s so great at what he does that it would be a crime not to let him do his own thing in some of the takes. This made it challenging to edit, but I think it was worth it with the performances he gave.
4. As the title says, Code Blue is “a love story,” but it goes to some dark places. Do you see this having a particularly happy ending?
I think it’s an unconventional love story. It is dark – I hope that you want James to find happiness, but ultimately, what he does is wrong and disturbing. I don’t know how it can really have a traditional happy ending, except maybe that James realizes he’s able to love.
5. Punk music’s influence on some of your filmography is obvious in terms of subject matter. Have your interests and background in punk scenes influenced your directing style, too?
That’s an interesting question. I know that punk has had a huge influence on my life in general and how I see things. I do tend to gravitate towards edgy and subversive material, but I never thought about how it may have influenced my directing style. I guess that would be up to the viewer to decide.
- Code Blue: A Love Story plays as part of “Beyond the Pale” on Fri, Apr 15 at 9:00p in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.