Picture Day

Claire Paxton is a rebellious, independent late-teen whose outlook on life is driven largely by her single mother's self-absorption and alcoholism. Claire is repeating some of her senior-year classes at Toronto's Arthur Meighen High School in order to graduate, which she decides to do during the school year rather than waste her precious summer in summer school. She has little motivation to attend classes or graduate. Her school year is affected largely by her encounters with two males with who she ends up spending much of her time. The first is Jim, the thirtysomething front man for the funk band The ElastoCitizens, with whom she embarks on a sexual relationship. The second is Henry, a ninth-grade student she used to babysit. Henry is an exceptional student, but is at a stage in his life where he too is starting to quietly rebel against his straight-laced upbringing. Claire acts as his mentor in his coming-of-age, which might change if she knew that Henry has secretly harbored an infatuation with her--one of his many infatuations--since their babysitting days. —Huggo