Never before in the nine-year history of F&M's film and media studies program has a student written, directed, filmed, edited, and presented a feature-length movie.

That first result -- the much-anticipated, discussed, and maligned Danger Girl -- is now available for all to see.

First the good news: this film was not a waste of your mommy and daddy's hard-earned money, and it's not really infringing on anyone's intellectual property. Even more importantly, director/writer/producer Sean Cannon '04 shows a great deal of technical skill and imagination as a filmmaker.

Now the bad news: this film borders on incoherent.

Danger Girl's paper-thin plot centers around an expelled F&M student, Bastion Ferris (Anmol Wassan '04) who wants to get back at Old Main for kicking him out for narcotics possession. Unfortunately, it takes Cannon's film about 25 minutes to get there, and what came before isn't all that memorable.

To get his revenge, Bastion will first take over Old Main (in a scene featuring a hilarious cameo by Richard Kneedler '65, president of the College), and then infect the student body with some sort of poison that only he has the antidote to (I think the payoff for this part ended up on the cutting room floor).

Assisting Bastion are his girlfriend Vanessa (Alison Wasserman '05); his reluctant sidekick Cobra (Chris Silansky '05); the mysterious Shaman (Paul Novak '05); paramilitary type Ebony Knight (Max Kornhauser '05); and the Red Mantis (John Plough '04), who looks like he belongs at one of those Saturday night screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Standing in Bastion's way are the Danger Girls: Naoko (Lauren Carr '05), Anastasia (Zeynep Beyli '04), and Cassandra (Nina Oliva), three young women who sneak around F&M in the dead of night unleashing their own ass-kicking brand of vigilante justice. Things come to a head when Bastion moves to unleash his plan, and the Danger Girls have to protect the campus.

Danger Girl's technical merits are much stronger than its storytelling ones. The camera work includes a number of shots which are interestingly framed and kinetic in nature. Frequently dipping into a substantial bag of editing tricks, Cannon utilizes a number of interesting visual effects (most frequently having the film go negative and then positive again). His quick editing propels Danger Girl along at a breakneck pace, and seems reminiscent of Japanese anime and recent martial arts films like The Matrix and Kiss of the Dragon. His soundtrack, culled from various action-adventure movies and video games, also helps to keep things moving.

On the downside, Danger Girl is hampered by a desire to provide flashy action sequences. As a result, the character and plot development are almost nil, and there are more plot threads left dangling than there were chads in the 2000 presidential election. Bastion's plan never really makes sense, mostly because the only part we ever see is his confrontation with President Kneedler. Another scene where one of the Danger Girls confesses her lesbian attraction to one of her comrades seems to be a shameless attempt to provide some sexual sizzle, but is never addressed again.

Several nagging technical problems also bring the film down. A number of night scenes are so poorly lit that one can barely tell what is going on. Audio quality is another sticking point; several scenes featuring Bastion or the Danger Girls are almost unintelligible, sometimes because the musical soundtrack is louder than they are, other times because the audio track is simply muddy.

As for the performances, nobody does a horrible job, but I felt somewhat underwhelmed much of the time. However, the film most certainly belonged to Anmol Wassan and John Plough. Bastion is just over-the-top enough in the tradition of your typical James Bond villain, and Red Mantis steals scenes left, right, and center. Out of everyone cast in this film, Plough is the only one who actually looks like he's having a good time, and he mugs his way through the movie, flexing and obsessing over his appearance.

On the whole, Danger Girl is certainly uneven, but not as dreadful as it could have been. With a little more script development, the film might have been a whole lot more even in its execution. It tickles the funny bone the same way that the 1960s Batman TV series did; if viewed as an exercise in camp, the film can actually start to grow on you. Cannon was wise to remind the audience before the film that Danger Girl is an "action-comedy," because everyone laughed freely during the film -- both with it and at it.

At the end of the day, Sean Cannon deserves a great deal of credit simply for bringing an 85 minute student-produced movie to fruition. Now that Danger Girl has been successfully completed, hopefully Cannon's efforts will encourage other students to create their own films -- but with a much better final product.

Danger Girl played in Stahr Auditorium on 22-24, 27, and 29-31 March 2002.

© 2002 The College Reporter. Reprinted with permission.