Film Fatale: Dinner in America, Weird Girl Representation and Loser-Core
Words: Charlotte Amy Landrum
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During my nightly evening TikTok scroll between videos of a pointing orangutan, Becki Jones and co. on their gifted cruise and Reddit scary stories, the algorithm has been feeding me Dinner in America (2020). If you are not on the same side of the internet as me or you are not well versed in indie movies of the last five years, Dinner in America is an indie comedy directed by Adam Rehmeier starring Emily Skeggs and Kyle Gallner. The story follows antisocial punk singer Simon (Gallner) and outcast Patty (Skeggs) as an unlikely but heartwarming relationship blossoms over multiple criminal situations and family dinners.
The girls of TikTok are, of course, loving this. The film has an original song written by the two main characters called Watermelon that sounds like it could be by The Pastels, with the playful lyrics taken from one of Patty’s love letters to Simon:
I'm a watermelon
slammed into
your driveway
crack me open
so I feel the air
inside me
like a tongue tongue
In my eardrum
dumb dumb
music boyfriend
let me yum yum
call me and I'll come
This song, or now viral sound, has gotten into trending status with hundreds of videos of young women lip syncing the lyrics with a wall of text expressing how Dinner in America shows an actual weird girl, as well as countless compilation edits of weird girl representation. Patty is hailed as Fictional Girl of The Month. Past months include May of May (2002), Ginger of Ginger Snaps (2000), and of course Pearl of Pearl (2022).
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I was apprehensive when switching this film on, as I was unsure if I could trust the gospel of TikTok movie critics, but I really did love it. The humour was silly and genuinely funny; it was undeniably sweet to see an awkward girl like Patty take centre stage and win the guy without having a Breakfast Club style makeover.
But despite Patty’s weird girl charm, it is more than just her personality quirks that draws a new audience to this film. Dinner in America feels unmistakably like an early 2000s indie film with out of pocket dialogue, the American suburban setting, incredible needle drops (see: My Kind of Woman by Mac Demarco montage scene at the arcade) and the hammering home of awkward but charming vibes. Think Adventureland (2009), Juno (2007), and Little Miss Sunshine (2006). A tale of losers making it work through an ode to the flaws of middle class America.
When I think of this style of film, I think of being around 12 years old during 2010, the peak of this format, and enjoying the spontaneity of the reject characters as well as the insight on what it would be like when I inevitably grow up to be a loser 20-something who can feel somewhat content about never getting to where they would like to go. The 90s had slacker culture, but the 2000s had loser-core: a Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Superbad (2007) figure who jammed out to Weezer and was shoved into trash cans in the high school parking lot and never got the babe - but in the end, all he really needed was his fellow social rejects. It is a warm hug to see the social victims proudly bask in their basements, below the bleachers, away from the IT suite.
But loser-core of the 2000s usually fell flat when it came to ladies - by casting hotties like Kristen Stewart and Scarlett Johannsan as awkward social outcasts - see: Twilight (2008), Ghost World (2001) - the boys seemed to have it so good with their less than traditionally sexy Paul Dano or Michael Cera. See: Scott Pilgrim (2010) - a true representation of the weird dude (complimentary) with their hands-in-pockets, uncomfortable smile and swooped brown hair (again, all complimentary) giving permission to the male youths to be weirdos. As usual, the on-screen woman needs to tick most of the fuckable boxes, even the ones who are supposedly Plain Janes or Freaky Enids.
With this in mind, characters like Patty couldn't have come sooner. Dinner in America couldn’t have made a better move by casting Emily Skeggs for Patty, who screams when she is overwhelmed, lacks social cues and hyper fixates on a niche DIY punk band. She really is the awkward protagonist that was lacking during the raunchy teen comedy boom, a much needed older sister to Todd Solondz’s masterpiece Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995).
“Maybe representation is not the problem here - but how girls and women are treated after expressing a niche interest or differences throughout their lives.”
The influx of young women who have come across Dinner in America and announcing life-changing viewing experiences is undeniably sweet. Of course this has caused a few internet fights. The tweets are flowing in as the Weird Girl Discourse of 2024 is birthed: What makes one an actual weird girl? Is it the girl who grew up with a Superwholock fan account? Is it the girl who had zero friends and held a fascist belief system? Is it the girl who couldn’t get a date to Tumblr prom?
It seems, despite the film’s message, the assumption that women are not able to be truly ‘weird enough’ or ‘faking their weirdness for male attention’ has come full circle, ingrained in even the people who have faced the wrath of high school bullies for their own quirked up behaviour. Maybe representation is not the problem here - but how girls and women are treated after expressing a niche interest or differences throughout their lives. Patty would have been called pick-me in a hot second for only listening to Psyops, an underground punk band, on homemade tapes.
At this moment in time, Dinner in America’s song Watermelon has 50.3k posts using the audio on TikTok, and I suspect both the praises and online fights will keep rolling until someone inevitably makes some sort of call out post about the film and everyone decides it has toxic vibes. What I do hope happens is that it kickstarts a loser-core film revival for the future. It has already somewhat begun with Emma Seligman’s Bottoms (2023), but we need more. Gen z girls deserve the same experience as a teenage boy watching Superbad for the first time in 2007.
