I accept neither of these films wholeheartedly, but I do like them both.

This evening, I stopped my father from re-watching Ingmar Bergman’s 1972 film Cries and Whispers so I could commit myself to another viewing of How to Deal, the straight-up teen melodrama from 2002, starring Mandy Moore and Trent Ford (who I continue to crush on a bit, owing less to his grungy handsomeness and more to his degree in English Lit from Cambridge). I had watched Cries late on Saturday night, and the movie is overwhelmingly brutal. It’s beautifully shot and performed (the whole cast keeps these stoned looks of inner turmoil and family trauma like the seasoned Bergman pros they are, shooting insults at one another with well-lit damp eyes) and painfully written. But it’s a little intense for an off-night. How to Deal has articulate lines like, “Enjoy him and fool around with him, don’t fall in love with him. Why do you think they call it ‘falling’ anyway?”. But hey, Mandy Moore is really good at rolling her eyes. And I might have been lying about caring less about how cute Trent Ford is.

Something funny: Bergman’s film is famous for using a very specific glossy red, which he described as evocative the human soul (“a damp membrane in varying shades of red”). The crimson pulses through scenes: sharper than blood, more stalwart than the characters, intense and passionate. But! That same red is a motif in the less serious (and okay, I’ll admit, less good) How to Deal. Sure, in the latter it serves as a brilliant common accessory color during the ‘falling in love’ montage that looks like a video for American Eagle Outfitters (set to Liz Phair’s popstar reinvention single, “Why Can’t I?), the boyfriend’s car, a single wall in Mandy Moore’s well-decorated room, lots of Coke cans, the clothing of the pregnant teenage best friend. When the young (not!-)lovers encounter romantic barriers, the red shrinks away into browns and oranges, LIKE THE HUMAN HEART. This movie is not subtle. Of course, neither is Cries. They are very different. Somehow they work incredibly well together—where Cries is painful, How to Deal is glossy and fun, and where How to Deal is overwhelmingly lame, Cries is painfully articulate. Neither could be described as anywhere approaching accurate. But there is something real, and actually really good, about both.

P.S. My father says, “Remind me what’s good about this movie other than that some of the actors are cute?” I can’t justify why I like it other than its tremendous attention to lame details like color, and the grandmother who smokes weed. Also, Mandy Moore’s eye rolling, and lines like “If love beats us up let’s beat it up right back!” C’mon. Inaccurate, but charming. I know that life isn’t like this, but film can be. Isn’t that why people like Bergman too? It’s why I like Bergman.