Mean Creek

I watched Mean Creek a little while ago and it is by far a very, very under-looked coming of age movie. Its tone is profoundly tragic and haunting and it contains one of the most distressing drowning scenes in any movie in my opinion (especially if your a Drake and Josh fan). Josh Peck also really shows off his acting skills here.

This post is going to be a sort of analysis of Peck's character George, who despite not really having that much screen time, still manages to convey a very complex and complicated character.

Analysis

It is obvious from the very start that George can't control his emotions very well. He lashes out violently when he sees Sam fiddling with his camera, but instead of simply telling him not to touch it, he charges Sam and physically assaults him. There is also the infamous scene on the boat where after finding out that they were going to prank him, George flies into a titanic rage and begins viciously insulting them, which then tragically leads to his untimely end.

George is also shown to be socially ignorant and to have trouble interacting with others and understanding social cues. He displays outright antisocial behaviour multiple times, such as physically assaulting people over minor infractions such as his attack on George and a prior violent action towards Clyde. An interesting thing regarding the past violence towards Clyde is that George seems unable to comprehend that he was at fault for it and tries to rationalise a justification for it. Another possible example of George's poor grasp of social conventions is his casual mention of Marty's father's death. Though he does apologise for it, he still shows some confusion at Marty's discomfort of it and doesn't seem to realise how seriously he has affected Marty by mentioning it.

Despite his occasional posturing, it is made very evident that at his core, George is a lonely, insecure individual who seems to have a lot of difficulty in expressing himself in a healthy way. He shows enormous excitement at the prospect of the gang wanting him to hang out with them, and throughout the trip he is clearly trying very hard to fit in and get them to like him. He buys a gift for Sam on his "birthday", smokes cigarettes with Marty and claims that he has tried them before when he really hasn't and then shouts a derogatory remark at Clyde to make himself look cool in front of Marty.

It is heavily implied throughout the movie that George may have had a disorder of some kind. George states he has trouble reading words which implies that he is dyslexic, but there is clearly something else going on too, George does show some signs of a number of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders. It is very possibly that much of George's behavioural issues may not be entirely his own fault.

George could very likely have been on the autism spectrum, as much of his behaviour does display some traits of it. He has a comfort object (his camera), trouble understanding social cues and his obsession with filming everything and documenting his life, could be seen as a manifestation of a special interest.

Throughout the film it is implied that George's problems with his peers and himself have been going on for a long time, and nothing has ever really been done to properly remedy it.

Conclusion

George in many ways can be seen as a representation of how a lack of a proper support structure for a troubled kid (especially one with an untreated mental illness/disorder), can result in serious issues with peers and socialisation.

In addition to its themes of toxic peer pressure and pointlessness of revenge, Mean Creek also stresses the importance of a good support structure for troubled youth.

Perhaps if George had gotten the correct help, then maybe that horrible accident on the creek would have never happened.