Slap - Nick Rowland (2015)

Slap follows a young boxer as he struggles to balance his private drag interests with boxing, friends and family. This is the longest of all the set films and I think because of this it is easily has one of the best narratives and is able to delve deeper into the main characters psychology. We are aligned with Conner through very intimate scenes watching him look at himself in the mirror which feels almost like looking at a reflection of ourselves. The fact that we are aligned so closely with Conner makes the end so much more dramatic and difficult to watch, especially after seeing him finally open up and accept himself while walking to the party. It is uncommon for a coming-of-age film to have such a negative resolution but I feel it works very well in portraying how in reality problems involving pressured masculinity and conflicted young people have still not been resolved and continue to be an issue. The micro elements that stood out to me were the iconography of mirrors, In particular the one in his room. Conner's room is the kind of hyper-masucline thing you'd expect, blue paint, boxing posters and print outs of naked women. It seems that the mirror is the only part Conner actually can identify with, it allows him to be his most vulnerable self. Personally this is one of my favourites of the set films because it tells a captivating story with an incredibly dense protagonist in under 30 minutes.