Lifestyles

iRate: ‘Babyteeth’ brings emotion that will stick with you

By Jason Guyer
The love of stories is what has brought me to watching films and reading books over the years. That same love is especially important when it comes to choosing what we watch or read.

I love to try and branch out when it comes to films or books and often do, as I am sure many do. I will say that happens more so with films as I watch just about any film and have no particular leanings when it comes to watching a film. I will watch anything at least once.

My preference or leaning tends to happen when choosing favorite films, as is the case with just about everyone I presume. My favorites often come from the independent or smaller market films.

The reason for this is because I love the human element in films.The stories that are more or at least feel more real, more human. This is hard to do when people have super powers or crazy things like that. Even love stories can be too far fetched for real life.

The problem with smaller independent films is that they are often harder to find, especially in movie theaters, and it is far worse in smaller areas like ours to find small independent films being played in theaters.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on smaller independent films. These are often the films currently being released on VOD as the “mainstream” films are on hold to wait for theaters to come back.

The theaters that are open, mostly drive-ins, are playing films like “Becky.” “Becky” is a film about a Spunky and rebellious teen who tries to reconnect with her father during a weekend getaway at a lakefront house. However, when the trip takes a turn for the worse as convicts led by the merciless Dominick, suddenly invade the home.

“Becky” is sort of a bloody and violent adult version of “Home Alone” that film theaters would not normally play in small markets.

“Becky” is worth checking out if you like horror/violent films.

But my favorite small market film to be released in the last couple months though is this past week’s releases is “Babyteeth.”

Some stories are good, like “Becky,” and some stories just touch your soul. “Babyteeth” is one of those films. It will touch every part of your soul. Be prepared for that.

The film tells the story of Milla, played by Eliza Scanlen. Milla is a seriously ill teenager who is emotionally dealing with what that means for her. In the process, Milla falls in love with a drug dealer named Moses — Milla’s parents’ worst nightmare.

How do parents deal with a terminally ill daughter in a bad relationship? How and why does Milla fall in love with a bad guy? What are the reasons and emotions behind life decisions?

These are all things explored in what is one of the most poetic films I have seen in years.

Milla is looking for meaning, love and support out of the relationships around her. Enter Moses, who seemingly offers neither.

The first interactions between Milla and Moses has Moses complimenting her and then immediately asking for money from her.

Moses is a drug addict who uses people, not excluding the terminally ill Milla. No moment is more heartbreaking in “Babyteeth” than one where Milla begins to feel sick and needs her medication just to find that Moses has stolen it.

The Milla-Moses story is one of heartbreak and redemption (in the end at least).

Director Shannon Murphy captures every heartbreak and redemptive moment in such a poetic way that she makes it hard for the audience not to feel.

The film can be broken up into smaller parts of shorts and each short has a title during the film.

My favorite is titled “What the dead said to Milla,” where nothing is actually said but Milla has a profound realization.

The structure is that of a book of poems where each poem has its own meaning but all fall into a larger contextual meaning of the book itself. Personally, I love that structure. It works perfectly in “Babyteeth” because of Shannon Murphy whose attention to color and texture are on point and fill in all the unsaid things of the film.

The role of Milla is not an easy one as it is one full of depth, strength, and pain.

Milla is terminally ill but she also seems to be the rock of her family. But Milla struggles internally with her life situation and it comes out in her relationship with Moses. Her family is struggling to deal with everything and she can see that. This is not an easy part and Eliza Scanlen gives you everything you would want from it. Acting with more emotion and fewer words is not something every actor can do.

The best performances Scanlen gives in “Babyteeth” are often the scenes where it’s just her in silence.

Scanlen is also paired with actors who really solidify her family. Milla’s mother, Anna, is played by Essie Davis.

Davis gives a great performance as a mother struggling to deal with her daughter’s situation. One who is grieving death even before death and through her daughters newfound relationship with Moses, Anna realizes this.

The better performance comes from Ben Mendelsohn, who plays Milla’s father, Henry.

Henry is a psychiatrist and even though he clearly knows the clinical way to deal, Mendelsohn layers the character in a way that the audience also knows that he may know how but he is also struggling to deal.

Everything that happens in the last 25 minutes of the film will just touch your soul in ways that are hard to explain without giving it away.

To say “Babyteeth” is a well-made and an overall well-done film and that feels like underselling it somehow.

Powerful endings that touch your soul often stick with you and this one will stay with you for a long time.

IRATE SCORE: 4/5

Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the graphics department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected].

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