I watched this movie not knowing anything about it or what to expect.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Script, acting, camera and sound work are all well done, which means the director did his job, too.
The leads, Zita Bai and Vas Provatakis, both come across as believable in their relationship, along with their individual volatility and vulnerability.
Zita Bai portrays Baby's subtle beauty and nerdly, teen, social outsider perfectly. An awkward teen with lots of fish-out-of-water moments. She's strange in a relatable way. The sparsity of her dialogue means Bai has to convey a lot with physical acting, and that may be one of the best aspects of the film. It's a great, physical performance by Bai.
Vas Provatakis' performance is also strong. Fox's menacing persona, along with his foolishness and vulnerability are believably presented as a toxic mix. At times you root for him. At other times, you want him gone.
Supporting cast is good. There are a couple of outsized caricatures in the supporting roles, but they don't mangle the story. In some ways, they can be chalked up to Baby's reality-challenged views.
The film flirts with going off the rails in some of the focus on Baby's videography and fascination with strange visual phenomena. It feels a bit like a teen version of a Terrence Malick movie in those moments. To its credit, it never crashes. It ends up back where it belongs: Baby's strange journey. And strange it is. The slightly distorted reality scenes with her parents could have also derailed the movie, but don't. It's a bit hard to discern real from imagined in some of these scenes, but it doesn't hurt the film. In fact, it adds speculative intrigue to what Baby's home life has been.
Baby's story is not unique or particularly interesting. She's like many teens you'd find in a given community: Difficult life circumstances, strange home life, discordant relationship with family and peers, plus a strange imagination.
In the end, I didn't love the story, but it was so well executed, I ended up liking the movie.
I hope Zita Bai will write more scripts and act in them. Very talented performer.
