Michael's Movie Grade: A-
A beautiful coming of age film.
This movie follows a 12-year-old girl whose parents seem to have little time for her. Her drug dealer father (who does actually care about her, just doesn't make the time for her) is engaged to a woman that she hasn't even met before, while her mother is living with an incredibly abusive boyfriend. She instead finds the care and attention she is looking for in a strange young man (who most would simply ignore), who is trying to find the father he never knew. The story may sound like your typical coming of age story and in some ways is. However, what sets it apart is how it is told. This film has moments of fantasy mixed in with the coming-of-age drama, but these moments are for the most part treated as if they are completely natural. Most of them are never even brought up again. Such sequences were quite daring for director/writer Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank (2010), American Honey (2016)), but they pay off perfectly. This gives the film a sense of magic that may not make logical sense but feels emotionally honest. This whole movie feels emotionally honest. Our main character is instantly easy to care about and relate to. Though she may have her flaws, we see and experience everything through her eyes and feel everything she feels. Young actress Nykiya Adams (in what is incredibly her first movie role) adds so much to how real this character feels with a deeply human performance. Barry Keoghan also brings a lot of humanity to her father making him a deeply human character under his many flaws. The movie may occasionally dip into sentimentality, but it does so in an honest way that seems to flow naturally from the story and characters.
This movie takes what could have been your average coming of age film and turns it into something much more powerful.
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