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Eliza scanlen lesbian12/26/2023 Such bourgeois hypocrisy becomes a complicating factor within the narrative, without in any way becoming the point. Nor does she feel duty-bound to visit judgement upon Milla's parents, who bristle at Moses's drug habit and yet, when it comes to the matter of their own neuroses, are quick to reach for the prescription pad. Kalnejais is smart to retain this ambiguity even as the chemistry fitfully blossoms between the two of them, leaving open the possibility that intentions on both sides are not entirely pure. (Don't worry, it's not on the soundtrack.)Įqually, Moses wants his 50 bucks, and to maybe swipe some of those prescription pills while no one's looking. Milla's doing so suggests a teenage rebellious streak, a longing for excitement, undoubtedly intensified by the logic of that Tim McGraw song. The revelation that he's 23, Milla's senior by an unsuitably large margin, doesn't help matters: "I'm a bit freaked out by that," mother Anna confesses, half laughing - extra candid thanks to the benzos in her system, as prescribed by her psychiatrist husband.Īnd on some level, that would seem to be the point: Moses is precisely not the kind of guy you bring back to your tastefully furnished, open plan suburban Sydney home to meet your folks, however loving and liberal-minded they may be. In a subgenre that often mawkishly preaches one should live a short life to its fullest, Babyteeth shows the fullest can be an ordinary day at the beach, when Milla turns the camera away from herself and onto her parents, the sea, the sky.īabyteeth is released on 23 July in Australia, and on 21 August in the UK.When he proceeds to ask her for money, she promises $50 if he'll agree to take clippers to her head, and then accompany her home to dinner - where his roguish demeanour, and her freshly botched 'do, cause the deep furrowing of parental brows. The family’s ultimate embrace of Moses has a whiff of saviour complex and its treatment of secondary characters – such as Henry’s flirtation with the pregnant neighbour, and Moses’ rift with his younger brother – are storylines too neatly resolved.ĭespite these elisions, the film’s effect is shattering because of how squarely it hinges on Milla’s perspective. Classical music, which scores much of the film, functions like an umbilical cord between mother and daughter: Anna’s pill-hazy state instantly dissipates when she stumbles on Milla dancing euphorically to Sudan Archives’ Come Meh Way at her violin teacher’s home.īut the insular, privileged universe in which the characters move betrays the film’s origins in the cloistered theatre world. Refreshingly for the genre, Babyteeth focuses on Milla’s family too: dysfunctional, but doing their best to medicate their own and each other’s pain. Her head is newly shaved after relapse and she has bouts of nausea, but she shoplifts lipstick from the chemist, unabashedly tucking it into her bra and immerses herself in the dark room of a party, illuminated by projected fireworks. The film finds rousing energy in the tension between Milla’s journey into adulthood, and the potential dead-end of her illness. Murphy and first-time screenwriter Kalnejais both have a background in Australian theatre, and they’ve structured this shrewd, affectionate drama through playful intertitles. She fights against the way they stigmatise him in a later scene, when he breaks into their house to steal prescription pills, her father calls him a drug addict. There’s an age gap, and there’s her parents: ex-concert pianist Anna (Essie Davis) and psychiatrist Henry (Ben Mendelsohn), whose cold and spacious, glass-panelled Sydney home Milla brings him to. The encounter – somehow both gentle and violent – leads to an initially arms-length relationship, despite their obvious attraction.
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