Whatever is a 1998 independent teen drama film written and directed by Susan Skoog, [1] about a high school senior's angst in the early 1980s in suburban Northern New Jersey and about her future as an art student with an urge to attend Cooper Union across the Hudson in New York City. The film stars Liza Weil (herself a native of Passaic) in her first major role, along with Chad Morgan and Frederic Forrest.
The film was released by Sony Pictures Classics on July 10, 1998, and was filmed on location using Super 16 film in Skoog's hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey for some scenes, along with Cooper Union in New York, with most principal photography occurring in Wheeling, West Virginia. [1] The 16 mm original print was eventually converted to traditional theatrical 35 mm film presentation.[ citation needed ] After its original 1999 VHS release, it did not return to home video until the mid-2010s, when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released it digitally to online video platforms for online sale, along with a limited period on manufacture-on-demand DVD via the Warner Archive.[ citation needed ]
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Susan Skoog, American filmmaker, is best known for her low-budget debut film Whatever (1998). Asked why she felt the desire to make the film, Skoog explained to IndieWIRE: "I felt like there hadn’t been a film that really nailed what it was like to be a suburban girl growing up in this country." Skoog has expressed repeatedly that the female experience and perspective, has historically been underrepresented in the film industry, but she believes that is changing by way of a "natural progression" toward sex equality.