Punk rock meets Catholicism in 'Edie Arnold Is a Loser'

Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that took elements that may be common to a churchgoer and poked fun at the ways they might be weird for people on the outside looking in. 

Ricco: Church giggles are a real thing, where it's serious — we're taking the body and blood of Christ — and you have to be respectful because of what's happening around you. If one weird thing happens, the fact that you can't laugh makes you laugh even harder, and then you get yourself in trouble. I feel like the film kind of taps into that a little bit. 

What was your entry point into the punk rock scene?

Ricco: We're both fans of punk music, and the punk ethos really resonates with us because it is very loud, it's messy, it's a raucous form of self-expression. We really love the DIY nature of it. That came up in the process of making a film where we didn't wait around for anyone; we said what we wanted to say. We must reflect the scene authentically through the eyes of these girls who are just coming into it. There are more hardcore punk spaces that this film does not look like, but the kind of all-ages punk that I was doing is very similar to [what] we depicted.

Atwood: I grew up listening to a lot of pop punk, but I wasn't aware of the girl riot scene. This was a real introduction for me. That movement was founded on rejecting traditional feminine roles and wanting to create a new voice and how they were portrayed and viewed within society. That is very similar to our movie, where these girls don't necessarily fit into the traditional expectations and they're having to forge their own path for who they are as people, even though it might not necessarily fit within the confines of everyone else's expectations of them.

It was striking how you contrasted the rigidity of the church space with the freedom of the punk spaces, but also how you drew connections between the two. There's a liturgical element to the punk music scene in that it has its own rhythms and rules of engagement. 

Ricco: Anytime there's a communal gathering of people who like coming together to feel something deeply, there's a similarity and divinity there. 

You have said it was important to use age-appropriate actors for this. What was it like to work with them, especially since it was, for many, their first time doing film? 

Atwood: A great thing about working with first-time actors is that more experienced actors sometimes come in with habits that they've developed from other productions, and a lot of our actors didn't have those habits. Sometimes those habits are not great habits to have.

Ricco: We did feel very protective over our actors because they are so young, and a lot of them are young girls who have already been the recipients of negative messaging about themselves. We wanted to build them up because we cast them. They were so unique and spectacular, and I wanted to make sure they felt that. We wanted to ensure that their confidence was at the highest it could be. 

I think one of my favorite exchanges is between Frances and Edie, where Edie says, "That sucked," to something Frances made, to which Frances says, "Yeah, but it exists." How does that line land for you as filmmakers? 

Atwood: There's a version of life where we don't finish this movie, and we're just like, "Oh, let's just scrap this. Let's hide it and let's do something else." But we were very persistent in forging this into something good, and that takes a lot of energy and work to bring it to fruition. Even at the end of the day, if we finish this project and it doesn't have this reception, if it doesn't play in any festivals, if no one sees it, I think it's still important that it exists for us as creatives, but then also the people that we made it with.

Ricco: For me, the process of creation is so important that the process in and of itself is so important. That's the point. If we get to share it with people and experience it with others, it's like the cherry on top, but it's not the reason that we make all this. It's a painful process, right? Especially as the writer. Kade and I both grieved versions of this many times. So you're always having to let go of the last version because it's just by the nature of the process that your exact hopes for a project die and are born again.

Your film taps into a very particular type of grief or stress; namely, for Edie, the question of whether she has to reject her faith and her community to be herself. It's not heavy-handed or somber, but it's there, and I'm curious what it was like to make that a central emotional undercurrent.

Ricco: That tension is very real to me. I forget that not everyone experiences the world through that lens. Going to a Catholic school, specifically where there is a religious element combined with the fact that you have to discipline kids, I feel like that can lead to a warped sense of understanding of what it is to be a good person. When I would get in trouble with minor infractions, I would conflate that with big sins. I still felt like I was a capital B bad person because I was getting in trouble all the time in this religiously coded environment. Writing into that came really naturally.

That's why I love Frances' dynamic and how she's pushing Edie to be more self-loving and accepting.  

Ricco: With Frances, it's a gift to be so far outside of the norm. Frances is like never going to fit in because she's so different, and so she's able to see through the artifice, and thinks, "Trying to change yourself to be accepted is not worth trying for." She represents the gift of being outside of the status quo.

The film is currently seeking nationwide distribution. Keep up with the film on its Instagram here for more information and screening updates.