K-12 (2019 film)
K-12 is a 2019 American musical horror fantasy film, written and directed by Melanie Martinez that accompanied her second studio album of the same name, both of which were released on September 6, 2019.
| K-12 | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Melanie Martinez Josh McKie |
| Produced by | Tyler Zelinsky Kimberly Stuckwisch Alissa Torvinen Gergely Varga |
| Written by | Melanie Martinez |
| Starring |
|
| Music by | Melanie Martinez Michael Keenan |
| Cinematography | Josh McKie |
| Edited by | Melanie Martinez |
Release date |
|
Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $5-6 million[1] |
Plot
Cry Baby wakes up hesitant for her first day at K-12 Sleepaway School. Realizing that her mother is passed out due to excessive drinking, she knows that she will have to walk to the bus stop. On the ride to school, she is bullied by the other students for having a gap between her teeth and sits next to her best friend Angelita ("Wheels on the Bus"). They are both revealed to have powers that turn their eyes completely black. The bus driver becomes distracted by the students who are misbehaving and swerves into a lake. Cry Baby and Angelita use their powers to lift the bus out of the water and into the sky, before landing it at the school.
Cry Baby and Angelita arrive late to Ms. Daphne's class and are scolded by her. The students recite the rule about tardiness: "when the bell rings, you must be in your assigned seat". The students are then made to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance; however, a boy named Henry remains seated and points out that America is not really the land of the free. This results in him being dragged away by the guards, leaving his fate unknown. During class, a popular mean girl named Kelly becomes jealous of Cry Baby because she has been flirting with Kelly's boyfriend Brandon, so she writes a disturbing letter for Cry Baby saying "You at Recess" accompanied by a stick person and a tombstone. At naptime, Cry Baby shows Angelita the letter. Cry Baby expresses her worries that she has no chance at winning since she doesn't know how to fight, to which Angelita suggests that she uses her powers. Cry Baby refuses, stating that it would be cheating. At recess, Kelly begins punching Cry Baby and cuts her arm with a pocket knife, until Cry Baby levitates and attempts to strangle Kelly with her braids. Ms. Daphne soon sees what is happening and stops the fight, sending both of the girls to the principal's office ("Class Fight").
In the principal's office, the principal fires Ms. Harper for being transgender. Immediately after, Cry Baby finds out from a boy named Thomas that the principal forces the students to take pills in order to control them and stop them from leaving the school. Angered, she uses her powers to call him on the phone and insults him, calling him out on everything he has done wrong. The principal begins coughing after having a drink, implying that he was poisoned. In tears, Ms. Daphne orders the Bunny Doctors to cure him, which they do ("The Principal"). Cry Baby becomes a marionette puppet to entertain the students during show and tell until Ms. Penelope drops her, causing her to have a nosebleed and exposing her intestines, which grosses the students out ("Show & Tell"). Outside of the Nurse's Office, Angelita turns Cry Baby back into a human. The nurses attempt to keep them restrained and under control ("Nurse's Office") until an angelic spirit guide named Lilith frees Cry Baby and Angelita. She attacks the nurses and Bunny Doctors.
During drama class, Cry Baby expresses her discomfort in being placed in a "domestic" role in the school play, instead wishing to play a strong role such as a film director or the President of the United States. The drama teacher, Mr. Cornwell, dismisses her concerns and calls in the guards to restrain her when she attempts to leave. Cry Baby is forced to play the role she was assigned, although the events take a turn when she presses a hot clothes iron to another student's face. She then warns the students in the auditorium that they are being brainwashed and uses her powers to defeat the guards and free the students. The students rush to the principal's office at Cry Baby's order and begin tearing him apart, killing him ("Drama Club"). Cry Baby and Angelita bury the body, then leave to play tennis with their friend Celeste. Due to a bubble blown by Cry Baby, the tennis ball floats away to a boy named Ben.
Later on, Cry Baby is seen in a locker room preparing herself for swimming class. The film switches between scenes of her dancing with the other girls in her class and wearing a dress with a large skirt made of cake. She has a look of distress on her face as several boys begin to eat the cake ("Strawberry Shortcake"). Cry Baby then has a dream in which she is speaking to Lilith, telling her that she doesn't want to be part of this world.
Cry Baby and Celeste notice that Angelita's skirt is stained with blood after she complains about "the worst stomach pain [she has] ever experienced". The three rush to the bathroom to cover it. During lunchtime in the cafeteria, Cry Baby meets a girl named Magnolia after separating herself from Kelly's clique, who didn't actually want to be her friends; they were only interested in gossiping and spreading rumors ("Lunchbox Friends"). Cry Baby and her friends soon discover that Fleur, a friend of Kelly, has the same abilities as them, and they set up a food fight in an attempt to separate her from the group. After seeing that Fleur is leaving with Kelly, Cry Baby follows her to the bathroom, where she realizes that Fleur is bulimic, likely partially due to pressure from Kelly to maintain a specific figure in order to remain friends with her ("Orange Juice"). Cry Baby tells Fleur that "everyone is deserving of love", and the two become friends. Leo, the principal's son, stops the food fight and asks who is responsible for the situation. Kelly informs him that Cry Baby was the one who started it, resulting in her being sent to detention. Her powers are mostly suppressed by the drugs given to her by a nurse until she manages to brainwash Leo and make him set her free ("Detention").
Ben slips a note into Cry Baby's locker, which contains an anonymous poem confessing his feelings to her. Leo then checks the security footage to see Cry Baby and her friends discussing a plan to take him down and destroy the school. In biology class, the teacher flirts with Angelita, who is flattered by his advances. The teacher uses his relationship with Angelita to trick her into ingesting a potion that causes her to shrink. Just as he is about to dissect her, Cry Baby enters the room and uses her abilities to throw him into the wall. She then turns Angelita back to her normal size, and the latter attacks the teacher with a knife, presumably killing him ("Teacher's Pet"). After a conversation with Angelita about their past lives and marijuana, Cry Baby sings about the requirements one must meet to be with her ("High School Sweethearts").
Ben is preparing to ask Cry Baby to the school dance when Leo bumps into him. He watches from behind a wall as Leo asks Cry Baby to the dance, to which she accepts while thinking "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". He claims to be the one who wrote the note. At the dance, Cry Baby realizes that she had messed up the plan to escape the school by accepting Leo's offer. Her friends express disappointment in her, and she storms off to the bathroom. A ghost appears in the mirror, telling Cry Baby not to beat herself up when she is mad at herself for ruining the plan. Leo makes an announcement to the students that he knew what Cry Baby had been planning, and forces all of the students to dance all night long. Cry Baby, who is disguised as a woman named Lorelai, seduces Leo and manages to lock him in a closet. She then frees everyone from the spell. She warns the students to leave the school, and all except Kelly flee downstairs to the exit ("Recess").
As Ben is trying to escape, he sees Cry Baby and follows her. When they meet, he confesses to her that he was the one who put the note in her locker. Together, they create a plan to use a bubble to make the school float away and disappear. Once this is done, they both jump out of the balcony to escape. After the school disappears, causing anyone still left inside to disappear with it, Cry Baby kisses Ben on the cheek. Lilith appears again with the gate to return home. Magnolia, Fleur, Celeste, and Ben are the first to leave. As Angelita is about to walk through the gate, she stops and asks Cry Baby if she's coming or not. Cry Baby looks back in shock, hinting at a sequel.
Cast
- Melanie Martinez as Cry Baby
- Emma Harvey as Angelita
- Zión Moreno as Fleur
- Megan Gage as Celeste
- Zinnett Hendrix as Magnolia
- Jesy McKinney as Leo
- Marsalis Wilson as Ben
- Maggie Budzyna as Kelly
- Bence Balogh as Jason
- Vilmos Heim as Brandon
- Alissa Torvinen as Ghost Girl
- Kate O'Donnell as Ms. Harper
- Balázs Csémy as Dean
- Natalia Toth as Lucy
- Joel Francis-Williams as Henry
- Zacky Agama as Thomas
- Olga Kovács as Ms. Penelope
- Kimesha Campbell as Lilith
- Katie Sheridan as Lorelai
- Toby Edington as the principal
- Anne Wittman as Ms. Daphne
- Scott Young as Mr. Cornwell
- Quei Tann
- Laurka Lanczki
- Ágota Dunai
- Genesis Ilada
- Samantha Lepre
- Kendy Cruz
Background
In a 2017 interview with Billboard, Martinez said that her then-untitled second studio album was finished and would be accompanied by a film that she was writing and directing and that it would be "all of the videos together of the next record, all thirteen, with dialogue and whatnot in between connecting all of them together."[2][3] It was filmed in Budapest, Hungary over a span of 31 days.[4]
Production
Pre-Production
On May 14, 2018, Martinez confirmed that she would be designing the costumes for the film. On September 9, 2018, she confirmed that she would be exploring some of the places in Europe for the film.
Post-Production
On January 2, 2019, Martinez began editing the film. On May 15, 2019, a first teaser was released. On May 22, 2019, a second teaser was released. On May 29, 2019, a third teaser was released revealing the release date. On June 17, 2019, during the MTV Movie Awards, a TV spot was released. On July 23, 2019, the official trailer was released.
Release
The film was shown in select theaters on September 5, 2019 and was officially released on September 6, 2019 through VOD.[1] It had previously premiered in Los Angeles on September 3, 2019.
Reception
io9 reviewed the film, stating that "When you listen to Melanie Martinez's K-12, the album's themes about bullying, insecurity, and the importance of learning to embrace one's imperfections are all readily apparent. But when you watch the accompanying K-12 film and visually drink in the story Martinez has created, it becomes a much more powerful fairytale about the lives we lead long after leaving school."[5] Idolator also reviewed the movie, praising it for expanding the Cry Baby universe and for its messages.[6]
Sequel
On September 6, 2019, Martinez confirmed that a sequel is in the works.
References
- Bell, BreAnna. "How Atlantic Records Helped Bring Melanie Martinez's Film Fantasy to Life". Retrieved August 1, 2020.
- Lipshutz, Jason. "Melanie Martinez Celebrates 'Cry Baby' Chart Success, Looks Ahead To Elaborate Album/Film Project". Billboard. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
- "LI's Melanie Martinez explores bold ideas in new movie". Newsday. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
- Stokes, Alyson (September 6, 2019). "Melanie Martinez takes on her darkest vulnerabilities in 'K-12' film". Alternative Press. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
- "Melanie Martinez's K-12 Is a Spellbinding Film About Breaking Free from Society". io9. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
- "Film Review: Melanie Martinez's 'K-12' Is A Twisted Pop Musical". idolator. September 4, 2019. Retrieved August 1, 2020.