Written by Joe Compton & Madilynn Dale
(Joe's comments are in blue, Madi's are in green)
So in full disclosure I first saw this movie as part of the Mammoth Film Festival the year prior, not that my opinion on it has changed but I have kind of changed a bit since first seeing it, and the movie itself had one fundamental change in it that my colleague Madilynn Dale noticed and shares with us here in her first viewing of the movie. I thought that was interesting having viewed it a 2nd time and of course reading the review by Madilynn.
WHAT THIS MOVIE DOES WELL: This movie touched on many themes revolving around family. For one, the lack of communication between family members was obvious.
Another focus falls into the coming of age and self-exploration category. Alex is confused about who she is and where her place is in the world. She doesn’t fit in anywhere and feels that she doesn't belong with her family. When things blow up she ventures out to discover who her father is while also discovering more of herself along the way. She makes a new friend that sparks an interesting relationship between the two and is taught a bit of what faith is. Not in the sense that she has to believe what the other person believes but in a different way.
I thought overall, this movie does well focusing on family and problems that arise with them.
Yeah, the dynamics here are what really sell this movie from the family aspects to the inner POV that we get from Alex, played well by Ema Horvath, and all written very well by Ben Epstein. What I think from a filmmaker and cinephile perspective that was interesting about a lot of the performances here is we have smart, savvy actors who know what they have been given and they play right to it. Often these things can pirouette into sloppy over dramatics, but even in those moments that this film does have, they are designed with a real sense of control that I think only veteran film actors can provide. This is maybe one of the best examples of that principal I have seen in a while. You never feel like any of this is out of any of the actors' depths and that allows us as a viewer to settle in and get absorbed by the movie.
It was a sweet movie that had me absorbed from the start. It had a great cast, and the actors did a fantastic job. It was a realistic and relatable tale.
I like that real aspect of it too. This felt like a very plausible idea, maybe even too much so, but that's okay, because I think in the moments when you feel like okay, really? You feel like that because that's what you are supposed to feel. Again, I think the editing, directing, and writing play around, and with, the actors in the same manner of control that I mentioned.
This really has an ensemble, collaborative feel to it that I think designs it a cut above your typical movie in the coming-of-age genre and in that sense it doesn't feel as indie for me, and I think I would have liked to see take a little more chances actually.
Something that bothered me after finishing the movie was the ending. I could not get past how it ended. I felt that it was a bit rushed and that life for the family after the truth was shared should have been expanded on.
A touchy theme that will hint at spoilers but must also be acknowledged, is the mention of rape and the aftereffects of it. This isn’t something obvious at the start of the movie but as I watched, I wondered if that was something that had happened. Maybe there wasn’t anything between Karl and Judith originally? I mean no is still no regarding the situation but did the two care for each other? While the ending left me with those question, the effects of dealing with the emotions following rape were highlighted. Alex was left trying to process all that she had learned and return to school. She was not sent to boarding school but instead enrolled in counseling. She didn’t make any new friends upon returning to her old school and rumors still circulated about her but she was in counseling. Karl was spent some time in jail for assault but came out focused. He wanted to continue to have a relationship with his daughter, but Alex wasn’t sure about that. Things are never simple when something that heavy is dropped on a young girl. Also, what happened to the teacher? Was he fired? Did Alex’s parents file charges against him? That too was glossed over and it should have had a significant role on some of the things Alex had to work through. Alex had a lot of things happen that affected her mental health that were glossed over and I wanted to know more.
Leaving you to want more I think makes it more real and that might have been the intention, I don't know? But Madi you bring up a great point in that here's the one change it made from the first time, in that we get a little more exposition at the end then we did than the last cut I saw. Yet it is vague and almost superfluous to the idea of trying to be more feel good than the situation really called for. I mean everybody who reads my reviews knows I have a real aversion to voiceover narration, no matter where it is in the movie, but I thought the modern way in doing it here, via text, was clever, but it still was exposition that I think does miss a little of what we really were draw too in this movie.
It's the safer choice. It doesn't make it bad, but it did take away from what I thought was a more interesting ambiguity I saw the first time around.
I have to also mention that I thought Yeardley Smith stole the show here. She was powerful and she really commanded our attention. I thought all the acting played well in harmonies with one another but Yeardley in particular kind helped change the tempo and raise the stakes for me, and without this may have been a way different movie. Also Alyssa Milano has one of the best controlled scenes in the movie that I think without her would have been disastrous. She is so, so good in that moment in the hotel, probably it will be one of my favorite acting moments of the year and that's all I will say about it.
WHY CHAMPION THIS MOVIE: With all that I mentioned, I feel that this movie would be an excellent choice for an audience interested in family drama, coming of age, self-discovery, and mental health following traumatic events such as rape, with a rating of PG13. Some of the triggers I noticed include mention of domestic violence verbal, emotional, and physical, a range of drinking from mild to heavy, smoking, mention of rape, religion, runaway child, cursing, mention of sex, attempted suicide by police officer and bullying.
I think also for artists reading this, filmmakers especially, but also storytellers I think this movie is a great yardarm for how to tighten things to move in a smooth almost seamless manner from beginning to end. I never felt like we were sent out of this movie by anything anyone did or didn't provide. It feels like a movie theater movie for those who are tired of the loud and obnoxious two and half hours of Dolby surround sounds and 4k/3d/IMAX destruction of our senses, and appreciate their emotions being challenged instead. I like that an Indie film can show that range and show that power without needing conventions that would have watered this down or pressed into a neat little box. This movie has some mess, as does life, but I still would have liked it to take up a notch personally and be a tad even more messy, but I really do appreciate what it is and what it gives us too and I think a lot of us cinephiles and writers, filmmakers will too.
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