Contrapposto

Cricket informs his mother he has enrolled in a life drawing class in Chicago and travels there alone for his first session. Initially intimidated by the other students and shocked that the live model is an older, uncircumcised man named Rex, Cricket’s perspective shifts when the instructor, Agnes Winter, teaches the classical technique for measuring proportions. This lesson is a revelation for Cricket, who realizes that great art relies on diligence and methodology, not just talent. His skill improves dramatically over the course of the class. Ms. Winter later praises his work and asks to hang one of his drawings in the school’s hallway. 

On the train ride home, Cricket feels transformed into a professional artist. He reviews his drawings with a sense of awe and fantasizes about being discovered, apprenticing with European masters, and achieving historical greatness.

Jed convinces Cricket to sneak out late on a Wednesday night. At Jed’s house, they silently push his mother’s car, which Jed is stealing for the night without a license, down the driveway before starting the engine. They drive to a wealthy neighborhood to pick up a girl who claims to be the reincarnation of Albert Camus. 

Cricket suggests they go to a large earth berm in a new housing development called Prairie Heights. Atop the berm, Jed mockingly tells “Camus” about Cricket’s life-drawing classes. Feeling defensive, Cricket shares his ambition to leave for Europe to apprentice with a master painter. Jed sarcastically responds he is going to Juilliard and storms back to the car. Once they are alone, the girl reveals to a stunned Cricket that she is actually Pia, and now goes by her full name, Olympia.

Jed tells Cricket about Olympia’s promiscuous reputation and her musician boyfriend, Stuart Escovedo, before giving Cricket a set of writings by Albert Camus that Olympia dropped off for him. Soon after, Olympia calls Cricket, arranging to pick him up the next day. 

Olympia arrives and confidently reintroduces herself to Cricket’s mother before taking Cricket to the racetrack. There, she buys beers and discusses art, their past as pen pals, and her desire to start an art movement called “PanYouth” with him. She is physically forward, and Cricket, drunk for the first time, feels his childhood end when she holds his hand. She reveals that Stuart stood her up and that her date with Cricket is a “distraction,” but Cricket is so infatuated he doesn’t care. They stay late, and on the drive home, she suggests starting their movement after Cricket returns from Europe.

Cricket is offered his first exhibition at the local library by a volunteer, Mrs. Napolitano. He shares the news with Olympia, who enthusiastically invites him to her large, impressive house to help curate the show. Surrounded by art books and wealth, Cricket is overwhelmed by Olympia’s vast knowledge as she selects which of his classical nude drawings to display. Her jealousy is piqued when Cricket mentions a “perfect” model named Jasmine from his art class, prompting Olympia to demand he draw her as well. While they look at an anatomy book on the couch, she sexually stimulates him until he ejaculates. When Olympia’s ex-stepfather Nelson arrives, Cricket makes a hasty exit, leaving his artwork behind and realizing on the bike ride home that he is in love with Olympia.

Cricket uses most of his money to have his drawings professionally mounted. He takes them to the library, where Mrs. Napolitano has cleared space for his show in the art room. When Mrs. Napolitano sees the finished installation, she is shocked by the nudity, having expected still-life illustrations. Cricket points to nudes in art books to defend his work, but Mrs. Napolitano is flustered and tells him the other librarians must now discuss whether the show can proceed. She asks if his mother has seen the drawings, and Cricket lies, saying she has. As he leaves, he realizes he never actually showed them to June. 

Convinced his future is set, Cricket decides he is done with his town and daydreams extensively about his imminent apprenticeship in Paris, his future success, and even bringing his mother to live with him there.

Cricket and Olympia arrive at the library to discover his art exhibition has been taken down due to complaints. An incensed Olympia confronts the librarian, leads Cricket to the police station, and makes an aggressive phone call to Mrs. Napolitano while impersonating a lawyer. None of these attempts succeed in restoring the exhibition, however. 

At home, Cricket finds his mother waiting with a colleague, Tom. He learns that the Daughters of the American Revolution had demanded the show’s removal. Mrs. Napolitano took the drawings home for safekeeping, even buying Cricket a new portfolio for them. After a tense confrontation with June and the hostile Tom over the nude subject matter, Cricket seizes a chance to grab his portfolio and escape through his bedroom window. On his way to Olympia’s, he sees Stuart Escovedo’s car and impulsively smashes the windshield with a rock. He ends the night at Jed’s house, feeling free and pleased with how things have turned out.

At school, Cricket finds a French note in his locker that translates to, “Nothing is true except the beautiful.” (126) Later, at the Whistlestop snack bar where he and Jed work, Jed’s younger sister, Annabelle, is waiting. Cricket is moved by the gentle affection Jed shows her.

Olympia arrives and confirms she left the note, explaining it was the motto of the Aesthetes. After using an ID that falsely claims she has epilepsy to buy wine, she begins calling newspapers to protest the library’s censorship of Cricket’s art. Meanwhile, Cricket discovers that Jed has been secretly living in a makeshift room in the station’s basement. Roulin quietly reveals he knows about Jed’s situation; he allows it because Jed’s father is abusive.

Later that night, a drunk Olympia calls Cricket from a 7-Eleven. She is distraught because she wrote a song for Stuart, but he has not acknowledged it, and Stuart’s friends continue to treat her poorly. Cricket bikes to meet her, and she initiates a sexual encounter in her car. They exchange “I love you’s,” though Cricket knows she is intoxicated and still loves Stuart. Too drunk to drive, Olympia lets Cricket steer her car back to his house while she works the pedals. Once there, she passes out on his couch.

On Cricket’s 16th birthday, Olympia leaves to join Stuart on tour. Feeling that his age proves that he will never live an extraordinary life, Cricket bikes to the river to draw. He spots a unique log across the water and, determined to capture it, wades through the freezing river to get closer to it. He spends the day drawing the log and feels a deep sense of peace and purpose.

That night, June gives him a crepe for his birthday. In the middle of the night, she wakes him with urgent news: Olympia has been in a car accident. They drive to a hospital, where they find Olympia with a broken collarbone and facial cuts. She was found in the passenger seat and refused to name the driver. Alone with Cricket, Olympia admits she was driving drunk after Stuart publicly humiliated her with an insulting song. Cricket insists she stop seeing Stuart, and she agrees. She then jokes that the accident was her birthday gift to Cricket, meant to distract him from the milestone.