MovieChat Forums > Girl (1998) Discussion > Did anyone else want to smack Cybil?

Did anyone else want to smack Cybil?


One thing I cannot stand is when little suburban 18 year olds dress in mall goth attire, act surly, and expect people to be intimidated/impressed with them. Cybil pretty much is the ultimate embodiment of those unfortunates.

Three parts in particular were eye-roll inducing: When the people from a music label want to talk to her after a gig and she says, "Phuk off; I'm tired"; when she confronts Andrea in the barn, sarcastically gives her a round of applause and snarkily berates her on becoming a groupie; and when Rebecca is trying to figure out what genre Cybil's band is, to which she responds, "Its music. You can call it whatever you want." ugh.

The icing on the cake is her perpetually greasy hair and random daubs of red, blue, and green smears around her eyebrows. How punk! Vomit.

Just seems like everytime she opens her mouth, it's some canned rebellion garbage and the worst part is that Andrea looks up to her--how nauseating! I wish a scene were put in this movie where Cybil goes to a real punk show and gets her @ss kicked by hardcore girls with shaved heads: at the very least it would add some sense of satisfaction to this otherwise ho-hum movie.

"I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it." Edith Sitwell

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Haha. It's true. You're right. Don't forget "Congratulations, you've discovered life beyond MTV." But you have to take this movie with a grain of salt. All the characters are basically defined by the stereotypes of the people they try to portray. Greg, for instance, always saying "it's reality. we're reality." Todd, the tortured artist looking for women's affections. Darcy, the insecure bulimic. They basically are stereotypes, except Andrea's character... and possibly Kevin, the cute boy. Other than those two, you never actually learn much about the characters, so it makes them appear like the embodiment of those unfortunates.

I thought Cybil redeems herself in the end though when she breaks down after SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Greg's death, and tells Andrea how much she envies her. Then you find out she really is just an insecure high school kid trying to find herself.

But, meh, I'm overthinking it. Cybil definitely would get her ass kicked at a real punk show, but she's not definitely punk. She's more angst/grunge punk. But hey, you can label her if you want. Haha.

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I personally found every character in the movie annoying. But what's wrong with dressing punk or goth? Andrea to me was 10x more annoying than Cybil.

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