Babyteeth is a coming of age story with teeth, pun intended. It is a surprising and striking directorial debut film by Shannon Murphy based on the screenplay, and play, by Rita Kalnejais with a great cast.
Milla (Eliza Scanlen) is a sixteen year old whose been diagnosed with cancer. She lives in the suburbs, middle class and with little time left disrupts her status quo by falling in love with a drug dealer, Moses (Toby Wallace).
This is as subversive as coming of ages stories get. Babyteeth subverts what you expect a 16 year old who is taking chemo to behave like. Then again she does have a lot of living to do in what little time she has left, so as with all good teenagers who go completely off the rails. She falls in love with Moses who her parents invite to live with them. Eliza Scanlen as Milla and Toby Wallace are both electrifying on screen. Essie Davis as the mother and psychiatrist father (Ben Mendelsohn) as Henry are so good to watch.
Whilst this is a coming of age story, it’s not just focused on Milla’s journey but that of her parents. They too have a lot of growing up to do not least the father who as a psychiatrist should have the answers but is actually the most mentally fragile of the group. Babyteeth’s narrative is episodic and that works well as a metaphor for showing how fleeting life is so every memory is a snapshot of a moment. One of the most poignant scenes comes at the end when Milla is taking photos of her parents.
Babyteeth is challenging and visceral and the metaphor of baby teeth is subtle and strikes you just as the film ends. One loses them just as your new permanent ones grow, and one of the central themes of the film is growth. Colour and light are used in a bold way throughout the film to also tell strands of the story and reflect the moods that Milla goes through. It’s so vivid and plaudits should go to the colourist and cinematographer.
Ultimately Babyteeth is a visceral and challenging coming of age story that reminds us all that we shouldn’t take life for granted. It is filled with humour and great acting and should be watched by all
Babyteeth came out in cinemas on Friday 14 August.
Everyone in the world knows that education is important. A good education that is engaging and thought provoking can enable children to reach their full potential, giving them the best future possible.
Education is not only about studies though, as many other skills can be learned from just being in a school environment. The interactions made and the friendships formed can influence a child at a very young age and stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Starting at Zero: Reimagining Education in America is a documentary that aims to discuss how beneficial life can be even before children enter the classroom – this stage is what they call Pre-K (pre-Kindergarten). Through interviews with many educators, politicians and education experts, Starting at Zero takes a politically unbiased look at the different ways that children can benefit from a Pre-K environment.
Split up into 5 episodes, each section looks in detail at every single aspect of life and how parents, teachers and even the friends they make can raise them up, giving their lives the proper start. Starting at Zero even talks to some of the children themselves, because who knows better what they want than the kids?
Focussing largely on the Alabama Pre-K program, Starting at Zero shows what goes on behind the scenes and how Alabama soon became the gold standard in pre-school education. There’s real passion in the voices of all involved, from the current Governor of Virginia, to the enthusiastic pre-K teachers ready to teach the new generation themselves. However, this means that the documentary can get a little sentimental at times, but this is the future of children that they’re talking about, so a little hope is understandable.
However, the documentary doesn’t really address the issues surrounding children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia which can be identified at a young age. Hopefully though this means that the program intends to treat them equally rather than ignore them entirely.
Starting at Zero: Reimagining Education in America may be preaching to the choir because it’s doubtful anybody would disagree with their sentiments, but it’s good to know that the next generation is still being considered so thoroughly.
Stephanie Owens is a country music artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. By Eleanor Klein.
How did you get into the music industry?
I grew up singing and performing as much as I possibly could. I moved to Nashville in 2013 right after I graduated from college to pursue a career as a country music artist. I released my debut project in 2018 and have been releasing music ever since.
Have you always wanted to be a singer?
Absolutely! I used to run around my house using a turkey baster as my microphone and would put couch cushions all over the floor to make my “stage’ haha. My parents both have music careers, so they have always been my biggest supporters and never made me feel like I needed a backup plan.
Tell us more about your latest single release.
I released “Work for Shoes” on June 26th and the music video on June 30th . It’s a celebratory anthem for shoe lovers everywhere! This is the most fun I’ve had with a song that I’ve released. Anyone who knows me well is very aware of my sassy side, so it was time to unleash spunky Stephanie haha.
Then I wanted to throw some humor into the mix with my music video. Growing up, I was very involved in musical theater, and I was always known for playing the spunky, eccentric roles. So, naturally, I fully embraced this ‘shoeaholic’ character. The video already has over 100,000 views on my YouTube channel, and CMT supported it on CMT.com as well!
What has been your greatest accomplishment in music to date?
After releasing my debut EP and music video, I was invited to perform and share my eating disorder recovery story on national television on the Huckabee Show. I have dreamed for years about making my tv debut, so that was such a surreal and awesome experience!
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Be yourself. While that may sound cliché, music and art is about expressing yourself in a unique way, and authenticity inspires and motivates people.
What advice would you give to someone looking to enter the music industry?
A career in the music industry takes a lot of hard work and thick skin, but, at the end of the day, it is about prioritizing relationships. It’s important to find your team, surround yourself with people who love and support you, and to build a true community of fans who relate to you and your music.
Muta’Ali Muhammed revisits the historic 1989 protests of New York in Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn. The documentary weaves interviews, graphics and evidential archive footage to map the timeline of events, and the political and social aftermath of the killing of Hawkins. In August 1989, Hawkins and his friends travel to a neighbourhood to buy a car, but he ends up being fatally wounded in a racially motivated attack.
The film is well balanced, giving both sides of the case a chance to tell their version of events, including Joseph Fama, who was convicted of Hawkin’s murder. Not only does the film focus on the effects on the family and the community, but also the unrest in New York at the time, and the lackadaisical attitudes of local government in relation to race crime in Brooklyn and beyond.
The film also peppers in cultural references such as Spike Lee’s ‘Do The Right Thing’ (Lee is interviewed in archival footage) and the rise of rap group Public Enemy, which reinforces to the viewer the socio-political changes in American culture at the time.
One can’t help comparing some of the archival footage with the present-day interviews and feel unsettled with the rhetoric and views that haven’t changed in 30 years. Photographic and video evidence shows segregation and racism in Brooklyn, yet, some of the interviewees are still denying it.
I wish we could watch these documentaries thinking ‘thank goodness this is a thing of the past’, but you will be left reeling by how relevant and true the events in this film are today. Films like this should not be watched under a political flame, but with a sense of compassion and fairness. Watching a film about a family destroyed because their loved one is murdered because of the colour of their skin is something that should stir change, not division.
Here’s hoping that a documentary like this will be released in 30 years, and the events are historical with a united audience that watches in disbelief.
The Cornavirus pandemic may have meant that 2020 is more or less a write-off for most of the major studios, but this year did see some early movie success, especially in the form of Leigh Whannell’s excellent update of the classic Universal Monster movie The Invisible Man. The film, which was produced by horror studio Blumhouse and starred Elizabeth Moss in the lead role, was on track for a decent haul at the box office before COVID-19 forced everything into lockdown.
Based on the upcoming novel of the same name by author Virginia Feito, Mrs. March tells the story of “a polished upper East Side housewife who unravels when she begins to suspect the detestable protagonist of her husband’s latest bestselling novel is based on her”.
It seems the studios are back in the business of greenlighting projects though, and they all sound rather interesting at this stage. Perhaps the most interesting, at least as far as I’m concerned, comes in the shape o a new Ben Affleck movie. Affleck, who hasn’t directed a film since the poorly received Live By Night, earned great acclaim for his fact-based drama Argo, which centered around the US Government’s bizarre plan to rescue hostages by fabricating an entire film production.
The movie is based on the book The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood, by author Sam Wasson, and Affleck will adapt the screenplay as well as direct. The most intriguing thing about all of this though is who will ultimately wind up playing the likes of Polanski, Nicholson, and Dunaway. Henry Thomas did a pretty good job of Nicholson in Doctor Sleep… just saying, while Polanski was recently depicted on screen by actor Rafal Zawierucha in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. And speaking of Tarantino…
In 2018 the Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams starring Game Night was released and became something of a surprise hit – it’s also surprisingly good and you should definitely check it out. Since then I’ve been eagerly awaiting finding out what the folks behind the movie would do next.
It sounds zany and all kinds of bizarre, but also pretty fun, and given what a surprise Game Night was, I’m curious to learn more. Let’s just hope this isn’t like the last time Bateman was in a superhero movie, because Hancock had some decent ideas, and we all know how that turned out…
