Pressing play on Shannon Murphy's Babyteeth is like walking into a house you used to live in that is currently occupied by someone else. Audiences have seen this type of story before and audiences know that there will be a great deal of emotion involved but the actual contents of the film and its particular choices are what make it stand out or not. Thankfully, many of Murphy's choices make this movie such an interesting and original look at the tragic type of story that she brings to the screen. Accompanied by some incredible performances from the lead cast and editing that I thoroughly enjoyed, there is so much to adore about Murphy's take on the "terminally ill girl" story. I have been looking forward to this movie since it was supposed to premiere at the Phoenix Film Festival which I was working for and I am so glad that this story is now getting the attention that it so desperately deserves.
Milla (Eliza Scanlen) is a young, chronically ill girl who lives with her parents Anna (Essie Davis) and Henry (Ben Mendelsohn) and is studying to become a violinist. When Milla meets a local drug dealer named Moses (Toby Wallace), the two instantly fall in love against the wishes of her parents and they spark up a relationship that will test the boundaries of family, drugs, and much more. The script, written by Rita Kalnejais, is incredibly solid and provides for some of the most interesting characters in this genre of film. I loved seeing how the personalities and motivations of Milla and her parents clashed and how lax with everything Moses was. This provided such a nice contrast to their characters and throughout the hardships and struggles they all go through, it made me definitely feel for them. The connecting theme of this film that I think really worked well for it was how every character, in one way or another, was tied down and grounded by their use of drugs. Milla's dependency because of her condition, Moses' use due to being a dealer, Anna's tendency to take too many sleeping pills, and Henry's profession being a psychiatrist and having the power to distribute medication were all such interesting character traits that helped to tell this story. Whether or not each character approved of the drugs or not, it gave them all one similar conflict that they had to work through, which in turn helped them to develop as a family. Murphy's choice not to have any drug-fueled sequences or hard-to-watch trips was such a sensible one and I really enjoyed how she structured the characters' experiences with drugs. Utilizing the befores and afters was a fantastic storytelling decision and it definitely made the tone of this film feel unique. Her direction throughout Babyteeth is just wonderful and proves to be the film's strongest creative outlet.
Another aspect of this story that I really enjoyed was how Murphy and Kalnejais exhibit an equal amount of development for both Milla, Moses, and Milla's parents. Entirely focusing this movie around Milla and how her sickness affects her would be heartbreaking for sure but being able to see her choices from a parents' perspective was very refreshing. Understanding your parents as actual people and more than just your caregivers is absolutely crucial and Babyteeth does a fantastic job of representing this. Having an equal amount of time dedicated to Anna and Henry was such a clever choice and really builds the family dynamic around them well. This would not be as effective, however, if not for the performances from the whole cast. Scanlen is obviously fantastic as Milla and brings such an eccentric and emotional core to her but Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn are the true standouts for me. They are wonderfully caring and careful in their performances and just within the little body movements and minor choices, they are able to portray such honest pain and grief throughout the movie. Wallace was quite humorous as Moses as well and was able to really strike a great balance between his character's bad habits and the love that he felt for Milla. The cinematography from Andrew Commis and editing by Stephen Evans really come together to form an amazing technical side of this film. The camera never seemed to stop shaking, even in the story's most tender moments and that choice was such a powerful one. Evans' editing was quite blunt as well, as many of this film's scenes were cut off devastatingly hard and forced the audience to get past their emotions and move on to the next day, just like Milla had to do every day of her life.
Babyteeth takes what audiences already know about the "sick girl romantic drama" genre and makes a lot of incredibly interesting choices to really help differentiate it from the rest. I really enjoyed Murphy's direction and so many of her idiosyncratic storytelling choices that helped to move this story along at an incredible pace. I do wish that some parts of the story could have taken a different route and not ended up so predictable but with a cast this talented and some stellar cinematography, it's very hard to go wrong.
My Rating: ★★★½
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