>
>>5) The movie seems often confused
>>about where it stands ideologically.
>> The art class scenes
>>in particular bothered me.
>>At the beginning, it's a
>>scathing (albeit very predictable, as
>>suggested above) satire/parody of "mainstream
>>culture" and "art," and yet
>>somehow it seems we're supposed
>>to sympathize with Enid's "triumph"
>>in art class when she
>>submits her Coon's Chicken poster
>>as a found object piece.
>> Sure, you could say
>>that ultimately, her piece is
>>rejected and taken down from
>>the art show, and that
>>she loses her chance at
>>going to art college as
>>a result, but we're obviously
>>supposed to go along for
>>the ride and sympathize with
>>Enid's acceptance when everything else
>>in the film to that
>>point had suggested that the
>>art teacher was such an
>>idiot that we shouldn't really
>>care about her phony "validation."
>
>yes!!! man i couldn't think of
>how to express that but
>that was exactly how i
>felt during the film.
>i was confused about what
>the director was expecting us
>to feel about that whole
>scenario...thanks for pointing that out...
>
>
>damali

Still, remember that Enid is just a young high school girl who still needs validation from others... she is self-possessed but also insecure (note her bickering with the comic book store dude about her new "punk" hair style, then going home and immediately changing it)... although the art teacher is clearly a nut job, Enid seeks approval from her anyway. As far as the whole "Coon Chicken" thing, the teacher's glowing response was just further evidence that she was a phony... in my estimation, Enid's intention in bringing in the poster was to stir things up and shock the teacher, not win her praise. therefore, rather than symphathizing with Enid in her finally being accepted by the teacher, I felt complicit in Enid's cunning trickery in getting the teacher to like her.