Jane Schoenbrun's 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma' Reviewed

Jane Schoenbrun's third feature film, 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,' is reviewed in The New Yorker. The film follows Kris Williams (Hannah Einbinder), a 29-year-old independent filmmaker hired by a studio to reboot a 1980s slasher franchise, 'Camp Miasma.' Kris, who is queer, is tasked with making the franchise 'elevated, a.k.a. woke' after it was criticized as transphobic. She becomes obsessed with Billy Presley (played by Amanda Fix as a young actress and Gillian Anderson in her sixties), who played the character Squeak in the original and has since lived in isolation. Kris visits Billy at a remote compound in the Pacific Northwest, leading to a personal and artistic connection. The film explores themes of desire, terror, and the creative process, with scenes from the franchise as films within the film. Schoenbrun, a trans filmmaker, introduces a 'cinematic trans gaze' through the character Little Death (Jack Haven). The review highlights the film's complexity, humor, and innovative camera work. Kris's final pitch to studio executives, informed by Billy, is rejected, but she finds artistic renewal in radical independence. The film is compared to works by Wes Anderson and Greta Gerwig.