We Are the Mods

PRESS

Download Press Kit

LA Weekly: GO WE ARE THE MODS Writer-director E.E. Cassidy’s We Are the Mods delicately fuses standard tropes of the coming-of-age tale (first kiss; new and imploding friendships; raucous house party when the folks are away) with the art-house/foreign-film sensibilities of her precocious L.A.-based teen characters. (The film directly references Antonioni’s Blow-Up, which Cassidy cites as an influence.) She’s created a rare American film to tackle female teen sexuality, its joys and disasters, with frankness sans condescension or heavy-handed tragedy. Sadie (Melia Renee) is a sheltered, slightly femme tomboy and budding photographer with a crush on her best girlfriend — who shoves Sadie aside to be part of their high school in-crowd. Enter sultry transfer student Nico (Mary Elise Hayden), all heavy eyeliner, swinging mod clothes, a too-cool older boyfriend and a medical disability she works like an accessory. Soon Nico comes to be Sadie’s muse, introducing her to foreign films, underground clubs, cigarettes and cocaine, all while stoking the sapphic energy that crackles between them. Cassidy gets fantastic performances from her cast, cloaking them in visuals that pay homage to her cinematic heroes. She’s also smart about the intricacies of friendships between teen girls — the idol worship, competition and, in this case, the queer underpinnings at work. An impressive feature debut. (Ernest Hardy)

Variety Review By Peter Debruge

“Mods,” Damned,” Lead Parade of Outfest Winners IndieWIRE

Kudos doled out at Outfest Variety

Hollywood Reporter

E.E. Cassidy makes her directorial debut with this love letter — both to the ’60s mod scene and movies like the mods vs. rockers Quadrophenia… Mary Elise Hayden is particularly perfect as Nico — portraying her as the coolest girl in school, the one everyone else wants to be, but who, deep down inside, actually wants to be someone else. Philadelphia City Paper

She is a Camera: “We Are the Mods” at Philadelphia’s Q Fest By Sherri Rase

These evolving attitudes toward defining gay film can be read across the movies screening at Outfest under the heading “Four in Focus,” featuring four first-time directors. Among those in the section is “We Are the Mods,” director E.E. Cassidy’s stylish look at one teenage girl’s induction into the L.A.-set mod subculture of motor scooters, vintage ska and R&B and Fred Perry clothes…

Mark Olsen LA Times

Kim Yutani, Outfest’s director of programming, acknowledges capitalizing on the opportunity. “We saw so many strong lesbian films that have potential for wider appeal that we wanted to highlight them,” she says, adding E.E. Cassidy’s “We Are the Mods,”… David Mermelstein Variety

Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 new faces of Indie Film

We Are the Mods, E.E. Cassidy‘s debut feature, is full of cinephilic pleasures. Yes, it‘s a teen drama that references (with, by the way, both imagination and restraint) the classic “good girl corrupted by the bad” storyline familiar from films like Thirteen and Poison Ivy. But it‘s also an affectionate and good-hearted homage to not only seminal films of the 1960s but also to the heady rush of young artistic discovery familiar to any sensitive ex-high schooler. Cassidy‘s tale of the contemporary mod subculture — teens in geometrically balanced dresses and suits who listen to British-flavored rock and ska and drive Vespa scooters — is full of knowing nods to Antonioni‘s Blow-Up, Godard‘s Bande à part and the films of William Klein. - S. M.

Amazing writer and artist Dennis Cooper watched a preview cut of the film and included it in his top 11 list of favorite films of 2008. If you haven’t read his awesome blog you should. DC’s top 11 list.