Themes: Sexual Awakening, Dangerous Attraction, Death of a Parent
Main Cast: Monica Keena, Daisy Eagan, Gordon Currie, Ron Brice, Vincent Laresca
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Writer/director Mo Ogrodnik's debut feature is a low-budget independent drama about the dangerous budding sexuality of two teen sisters. Fourteen-year-old fraternal twins Violet (Monica Keena) and Rosie (Daisy Eagan) barely escape from a fiery car wreck that claims the lives of their parents. Because their father was abusive, they are happy to be free, and they strike out for Kentucky. Instead, the girls end up on a run-down Army base, where they befriend the hirsute civilian groundskeeper, Pete (Gordon Currie). Pete, who supplements his income by selling contraband porn magazines and junk food to the soldiers, lies to the base commander and claims that the girls are his nieces. The runaway sisters move into Pete's quarters and Violet begins a flirtatious relationship with him, while the tomboy Rosie learns how to shoot a gun from a kindly military police officer, Ken (Ron Brice). After charged episodes playing "spin the bottle" and a base dance, the relationship between Violet and Pete turns sexual. Dismayed, Rosie retaliates by having her own sexual encounter with a soldier. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Mo Ogrodnik's feature debut, Ripe, suffered the same fate as many festival-circuit indie productions -- a brief theatrical release on the way to a video distribution deal replete with misleadingly sexy box-cover art -- but it deserves a look on the merits of its lead performers and striking atmosphere. Ogrodnik's agenda is simple and universal: to show the petty betrayals that adolescent girls foist upon one another when they discover their sexuality. Unfortunately, she has to work out this theme via a convoluted, unrealistic plot involving dead parents, runaway schemes, and a laissez-faire army base where two teenage girls can take up refuge and no one will bat an eyelash. That said, Ogrodnik's drably surreal visual sense -- aided by Wolfgang Held's dreamy, blue-green color scheme and Sally Petersen's stark production design -- allows many of Ripe's more preposterous scenarios to glide by easily, as part of the movie's overall Freudian-nightmare texture. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Hannah Moseley - Art Director, Rachel Watanabe-Batton - Associate Producer, Eve Battaglia - Casting, Richard Abramowitz - Co-producer, Katherine Jane Bryant - Costume Designer, Tommy (T-Bone) Barone - First Assistant Director, Mo Ogrodnik - Director, Sarah Durham - Editor, Patrick Panzarella - Executive Producer, Michael Chambers - Executive Producer, Anton Sanko - Songwriter, Wolfgang Held - Camera Operator, Sally Petersen - Production Designer, Thomas A. Razzano - Producer, Suzy Landa - Producer, Jonathan S. Gaynor - Sound/Sound Designer, Mo Ogrodnik - Screenwriter
Ripe is a 1996 American independent drama film released in 1997. It was the first film written and directed by Mo Ogrodnik and starred Monica Keena and Daisy Eagan
Plot
When their abusive parents are killed in a car crash, twin sisters Rosie (Keena) and Violet (Eagan) vow to run away to Kentucky in search of a better life. While on the road, the girls meet up with Pete, a drifter working as a grounds keeper on a derelict army base, who takes them in. While Violet falls for him, Rosie becomes increasingly angry and hostile, and the sisters' childhood bond is eventually destroyed forever.
