Babyteeth - Review

-
Director: Shannon Murphy
Starring: Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Emily Barclay, Eugene Gilfedder, Essie Davis, Ben Mendelsohn

Seriously ill teenager Milla (Scanlen) falls in love with Moses, a wayward young man and small-time drug dealer, much to her parents chagrin. However, Milla's relationship with Moses reinvigorates and gives her a newfound zest for life.

Five Feet Apart, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Fault in Our Stars. Over the past few years, the terminally-ill teenage romance genre has had a host of entries. Whilst each film is not without its merits, they do adhere to a strict formula. Shannon Murphy's debut Babyteeth bucks this pattern of predictability in a bold and relentlessly artistic fashion, favouring nuanced exploration over forced and manipulative emotion - although there are plenty of tears to be shed.

Milla and Moses meet on a train station platform after he accidentally shoves into her and goes on to stem her nosebleed with his t-shirt, lowering Milla to the ground and cradling him in his arms. The mutual attraction and intrigue is immediate, but so is Moses's unreliable and fleeting nature. Despite the red flags that his behaviour raises, Milla is infatuated and her parents' disapproval of her new relationship cannot deter her. Scanlen, who burst onto our screens with her rousing performance in HBO's Sharp Objects, continues to prove her diversity and intellect as an actress, intrepidly inhabiting the complexities of her character. Milla is intense yet goofy, wilful yet vulnerable and manages to garner our sympathies and frustrations as she pursues a seemingly destructive relationship. 

Beyond the burgeoning romance of our star-crossed lovers, Babyteeth refreshingly adds layers of complication to a story that sits within a well explored genre. Milla's family and the dysfunction that arises from their incredibly affecting and uncompromising situation is given ample consideration in a way that distinguishes itself from every other film you've seen that focuses on a teenager's battle with terminal illness. Milla's ex-concert pianist mother Anna and psychiatrist father Henry both literally medicate to ease and manage their emotional pain as they attempt to guide the family through unimaginable hardship with minimal scathing. However, all parties involved realise that there is no textbook to teach you how to navigate such wretched circumstances and accept that mistakes will be made along the way to achieving a fraction of happiness and normality. Babyteeth does not seek to vilify anyone for their behaviour but instead offers a sympathetic portrayal of people trying to live a life that has been rendered so unjustly unfair.

The film utilises titled vignettes that are reminiscent of act structures in a play (Murphy's background is in the theatre) and each instalment, no matter how brief or interluding, bookmarks the entries of Milla's life from the moment she meets Moses. As well as a unique approach to storytelling, Murphy also creates a dreamy aesthetic from a life of daunting domesticity, capturing the growing intimacy between Milla and Moses; the nearly-touching knees as they sit together on the subway, the play fighting and roughhousing. It's the space between their bodies as they become more emotionally bonded that curates such palpable tension and Murphy employs this to great effect. 

Emotionally riveting and profoundly artistic, Shannon Murphy's fearless debut about young love and familial suffering smartly subverts the expectations of the genre and offers an unflinching depiction of humanity.

EB

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Love and Friendship - Review

-
Image
Director: Whit Stillman Cast:  Kate Beckinsale, Chloe Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, Emma Greenwell. Whit Stallman may not be a name you recognise in the realm of filmmaking, but after the overwhelming critical acclaim lavished upon Love and Friendship , expect his presence around Hollywood to explode. In 18th century England, the underhand and manipulative, albeit appeasing, Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) sets her sights on the eligible Reginald De Courcy and proves to be unafraid to use every devious trick in her arsenal to secure his romantic companionship. Love and Friendship is based on Jane Austen's Lady Susan , a novel not published in the author's lifetime and is one of her last works to be adapted to the big - screen. With the novel written in the unique epistolary form, one can only imagine the challenges of adapting the material into a feature - length film. However, the material is deftly guided and crafted by writer/director Stallman as he creates an entirely
Read more

Doctor Strange - Review

-
Image
Director: Scott Derrickson Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong Doctor Strange, you say. Who on Earth is Doctor Strange? This character certainly doesn't have the notoriety or popularity in the zeitgeist that superheroes such as Batman or Superman do. But Marvel Disney have always displayed a talent for bringing largely unknown characters from comics to the forefront of popular culture; before 2008's smash hit Iron Man , Tony Stark or his alter ego was an unknown property. Now? He's the MCU's biggest attraction. Will Doctor Strange  be catapulted into the mainstream in such a fashion, or make a blunder at the starting line? Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), a New York neurosurgeon, is a highlight intelligent but egotistical work-obsessed individual. When a catacalysmic car crash leave Strange's hands damaged beyond medical repair, Strange seeks a remedy in Kathmandu and discovers
Read more

Darkest Hour - Review

-
Image
Director: Joe Wright Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, Ben Mendelsohn The evacuation of Dunkirk has been a frequent presence in British film over the past couple of years; firstly it was the subject of a fictional film in Their Finest , next the sole focus of Christopher Nolan's war epic aptly titled Dunkirk  and now Darkest Hour, a film that centres around the crucial days of Churchill's reign as Prime Minister as he must decide whether to save the British soldiers trapped on Dunkirk beaches or leave them stranded to face certain death. The Germans are rapidly advancing and Churchill attempts to restore peace in the face of insurmountable odds. Having lost faith in the capabilities of Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup), Winston Churchill (Oldman) is appointed as British Prime Minister. Within days, Churchill must face the toughest and most defining of trials: consider the option of negotiating a peace treaty with Nazi Germany or stand firm and fight fo
Read more