It has been 97 days since my last visit to a movie theater when I saw Emma before going on a family vacation that ended with the country shutting down. Today I got to venture back into my favorite past time and hobby of movie watching thanks to a local art house theater called The Enzian in Maitland, Florida. While I watched movies at home off and on during the shutdown I largely got into a depressive state of missing seeing movies in theaters and the experience of going out to the theater. For the last few months as you may see it has been touch and go on keeping up my enthusiasm to write and maintain a consistent watch trend. I have missed seeing movies come out initially into a theater, while the theater at home concept with VOD has become somewhat of a thing most only have a rental option of $19.99 which does not include owning a copy only a limited time rental, for an individual such as my self that attends movies for $5 - $9 dollars going out it is not cost effective for me to rent every single new release they throw into VOD instead of theatrical release.
Now let’s talk film, with my first showing back in a theater environment with Babyteeth. I have not seen any other films by director Shannon Murphy though I may seek them out after watching this one. Eliza Scanlen is Milla a high schooler is also dealing with having cancer when she happens upon an older boy named Moses played by Toby Wallace. Not only is he quite a bit older than she is he is also into the drug dealing scene which does not sit well for Milla’s parents especially when he starts to take their own drugs after being introduced to the family and invited into their home. Things take a turn when Milla begins a serious relapse and her parents must put differences aside if that’s what it means to make their possibly terminally ill daughter happy. I’ll be honest with the title my mind immediately went to the film Teeth from 2007 which this turned out to be nothing like, phew. When this started I was not quite sure what to make of it or if I was going to find myself committing to it, as it starts to unravel and more of each characters traits starts to be explored I found my self drawn into Milla’s world. It is told through title card segments that keep things moving along and I never found myself bored and its warmly shot. This might be a little harder for those that have had to experience a child going through cancer, especially towards the end. It was a nice film to get back into the movie going saddle as it has moments of laughter and times to cry which experiencing with the audience their laughs and sobs enhances the emotions the film is trying to convey. I would not say it’s a must see for most viewers, those in the independent circuit I feel will enjoy this especially in the art house environment I was in, though I would say check it out when it comes to VOD if your leery still of venturing out because Eliza Scanlen and Toby Wallace their performances feel very natural. It is a good exploration into having to accept negatives for a positive outcome. B.
Another topic I get a lot of friends and family looking for my commentary on is the mask being required in the chain theaters when they reopen. I am going to take AMC’s original stance and not want to get drawn into the political debate in regards to masking. I will just say I love going to movies and the experience that the theater with an audience brings especially to certain genres of movies and would rather wear a mask than not be able to go at all, because I have just been miserably depressed not being able to do my favorite past time these past few months. My main argument through this phase of reopening is if you do not feel safe don’t go and if you love something as much as I love going to the cinema a piece of fabric should not deter you from that experience.
