• Somehow, even in 2019, Shannon Murphy (debut as director) and writer Rita Kalnejais (from her book) add enough to the subgenre of quirky, coming of age comedy dramas where a character passes from a disease, to archive it.

Color titles that introduce the scenes “Insomnia” and “It didn’t feel like a love story that day” and “Things Change”

  • In an absolutely hilarious exchange, the mother (Essie Davis- from The Babadook) and father (Ben Mendelsohn) have dinner with their daughter (Eliza Scanlen) as she brings home a questionable boyfriend/friend (Toby Wallace) . Davis’ character is on pain medication and is feeling her face with her hands at the table, chewing on ice—Mendelsohn’s character is trying to keep his cool…riotous. The story is really that their marriage is struggling and they let an older drug addict hang out with their daughter (she is in love with him) to keep her happy as she battles with a terminal illness. Despite the funny dinner scene mentioned previously, this leans far closer to the drama side of the comedy/drama blend.
  • There is a sort of a Midnight Cowboy/Easy Rider drug party scene (above) as Scanlen’s character steps out and tastes a bit more of life.
  • Scanlen also plays Beth from Little Women and she is great in that as well. That means she plays a character dying in two 2019 films.
  • It does feel like there is a superior 155-minute A Woman Under the Influence version (running time here is 118 minutes) of this film with the neighbor, music teacher, and Moses’ brother fleshed out more instead of these three characters and their relationships with the four main characters in this drama left on the wayside.
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 2019