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Foxfire movie storyline. Loosely based on the book Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates, this film is about four high-school girls, dissimilar in every other way, who find that they are all being made to perform sexually with their biology teacher. This discovery leads them to become allies and friends.
Shortly afterward, they exact revenge on their teacher at the cost of being expelled from school. Taking up residence in an abandoned house in the woods, they practice some rather sexy bonding rituals between themselves. Thanks to the efforts of their ringleader Legs to get drug rehab money for one of the girls, they find themselves on the wrong side of the law, and the chase begins.
Foxfire is a 1996 film based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang. The film is directed by Annette Haywood-Carter and starring Hedy Burress, Angelina Jolie, Jenny Lewis, Jenny Shimizu, Sarah Rosenberg, Peter Facinelli, Michelle Brookhurst, Dash Mihok, Elden Henson, Cathy Moriarty. It examines the coming of age of four high school girls who meet up with a mysterious and beautiful drifter.
About the Story
Foxfire is narrated by Maddie Wirtz, a high school senior living a rather normal life in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. Maddie is in control of her life, with a boyfriend, as well as plans to go to art school. One day in science class, the students are watching the teacher Mr. Buttinger try to make Rita Faldes dissect a frog. A mysterious and beautiful leather jacket-clad “new student” stands up to Mr. Buttinger and releases Rita’s frog. When Mr. Buttinger sentences them both to detention, the drifter reveals that she’s not a new student after all and escapes through the same window as the frog.
Later, in the girls’ restroom, the drifter and some other girls are listening to Rita describe Mr. Buttinger’s untoward advances. When the drifter says the only way to stop the teacher is to stick together, the only girls to stay are Rita, Violet and Maddie. When detention time comes, Mr. Buttinger indeed begins his advances toward Rita, but is startled by Violet’s entry.
When Maddie and the drifter come in soon after, he realizes the situation is becoming serious. The girls confront the teacher about his abuse and they become involved in a physical altercation, which ends when the ordinarily shy Rita slams his face against a lab bench and tells him “if you ever put your hands on me again, I’m gonna snip your little nuts off with my toenail clippers.” At this point Goldie Goldberg walks in, and joins the assault by declaring “this is great; Buttinger is such a fuck.” The girls run from the school and then decide to go home.
At Maddie’s house, Maddie is surprised by a knock at the window, which turns out to be the stranger from the earlier assault, there to return Maddie’s dropped address book. The girl tells Maddie she’s a drifter who got kicked out of school “for thinking for herself.” Maddie agrees to let her sleep on the floor.
The next morning, Maddie catches up with the girl on a bridge. The girl tells Maddie her name is “Legs” and brings Maddie’s art supplies up onto the bridge. Maddie, who is afraid of heights, can’t join her. A truck startles Legs, who drops the art portfolio over the edge of the bridge. Legs climbs over the edge of the bridge to retrieve the bag, which deeply impresses Maddie. As they part, Maddie tells Legs of an abandoned house up the river where Legs could stay.
At school, the girls are called in to the principal’s office, where their claims of sexual harassment fall on deaf ears and they are suspended for three weeks. The girls are escorted off campus and Maddie is not allowed to retrieve her art school portfolio. Instead of going home with the news of their suspension, they all decide to go to the abandoned house up the river. There they meet Legs, who suggests they break into the school to get Maddie’s portfolio.
The girls sneak into the high school through a vent and go into the art room. While the other girls are busy collecting Maddie’s work, Goldie is put off by an unflattering Polaroid and moves into a side room to smoke a joint. She throws her match into a pile of oily rags, starting a fire and setting off the sprinklers. The girls have to escape the police who come to investigate and eventually reconvene at the house.
Foxfire (1996)
Directed by: Annette Haywood-Carter
Starring: Hedy Burress, Angelina Jolie, Jenny Lewis, Jenny Shimizu, Sarah Rosenberg, Peter Facinelli, Michelle Brookhurst, Dash Mihok, Elden Henson, Cathy Moriarty
Screenplay by: Joyce Carol Oates, Elizabeth White
Production Design by: John Myhre
Cinematography by: Newton Thomas Sigel
Film Editing by: Louise Innes
Costume Design by: Laura Goldsmith
Set Decoration by: Marthe Pineau
Art Direction by: Alan Locke
Music by: Michel Colombier
MPAA Rating: R for teen nudity, drug use, strong language and some violent situations.
Distributed by: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Release Date: August 23, 1996
Views: 424
