Rent Babyteeth (2019)

Lovely Tragi-comedy - Babyteeth review by GI

A heartwarming tragic-comedy that cleverly deals with the difficult subject of terminal illness. Eliza Scanlen plays 16 year old Milla who is in remission for cancer and wears wigs to cover her hair loss caused by chemotherapy. Her parents Anna and Henry (Essie Davis, Ben Mendelsohn) are devoted to her but their love is suffocating and Milla feels more and more isolated and despairing. Until she meets the energetic and wild Moses (Toby Wallace), a small time drug pusher and user and every parents nightmare. Anna and Henry are forced to make some difficult decisions very quickly when they see Moses has a liberating affect on Milla. This is an impressive directorial debut for Shannon Murphy whose clever use of colour highlights the growing bond between the two youngsters and the music score is impressive and underlines the relationships of the main characters. This is a humorous, sad and entertaining coming-of-age story that covers the difficult subject of serious child illness and first love really well making it a very fulfilling film. Well worth checking out.

Disappointed - Babyteeth review by LH

As per previous reviewer. Didn’t live up to the Hype. Boring! Didn’t engage for me. Missed the mark. Little emotion until the end. In short, nothing much happens and it isn’t delicate enough to be a beautiful film. You don’t really buy into the sorrow, as it doesn’t engage until the very end. 

Compelling viewing - Babyteeth review by PD

Wow. This wonderful piece by first-time feature director Shannon Murphy will speak volumes to anyone who has suffered the effects of someone taken before their time. I was very impressed by her handling of such a delicate subject and very moved.

Eliza Scanlen is pitch-perfect as the terminally ill teenager Milla, whilst Ben Mendelsohn as her father Henry and Essie Davis as mother Anna offer thoroughly convincing support as they attempt to stave off the tidal wave of grief looming over them. Murphy is really good at depicting the crushing feeling of the family home being filled with sickness, and the way any small joys managed within it are quickly stifled.

At the heart of the film is Milla’s relationship with wayward, drug-addled 23-year old Moses (admirably played by Toby Wallace), a decidedly tricky dynamic - for we are as wary of him as her parents, but ultimately we, like them, are, if not exactly won over, are forced to end up seeing him through Milla's eyes, and this is some achievement on the part of the director. Milla’s romantic and sexual awakenings are a faltering journey that Scanlen illustrates with disarming wisdom. She’s got serious chemistry with Wallace, who keenly communicates the ways that Moses’s decency is so often at war with the necessities of his addiction and the wounds of his own tumultuous family life. The age gap between the two characters, and the way it’s lovingly forgiven in the film, may rankle some, but for me it ultimately convinces. “It’s her first love,” Anna says resignedly to Henry in one quiet scene. The unspoken sentiment is that it could also very well be her last. Is that enough to excuse the gap in age and experience? Babyteeth is content live with that ambiguity, as Anna and Henry realise that giving permission to 'transgression' is in a way allowing Milla to live a whole young adulthood in a compressed, terribly fleeting time frame. Murphy is not interested in didactic lesson-learning. Instead, the film insists on the inadequacy of what is 'proper' in the face of oblivion, the confounding uselessness of saying “no” to someone who is staring down life’s ultimate negation.

Murphy avoids the clunky exposition of films of this ilk —there are few dutiful explanations of what exactly is wrong with each character. Rather, we discover their pain as the film floats along. Some omens can’t be avoided—hair loss, vomiting, dinner embarrassment after too many pills—but the film mostly knows that Milla, her family, and Moses would all understand their circumstances without needing to spell them out. And Murphy also avoids any prescriptive moralising: Henry and Anna are neither good or bad parents; they are just trying (and often failing) to find a way through an impossible situation.

My favourite (short) scene is one in which a video of fireworks exploding in slow-motion is projected on Milla’s face, all while an androgynous figure in futuristic silver circles her, and brings home Milla’s fragile being far better than any words could. Compelling viewing.

Worthy, Innovative, Well acted - Babyteeth review by CD

This film received very positive critical reviews but in spite of its positivity and excellent  acting I did not enjoy it very much.  The subject matter is well documented in other reviews but the film feels wooden at times, is quite unquestioning about the luxury home and lifestyle of the dysfunctional family, and  some situations (such as the Christmas meal) seem rather artificial.  That being said it has some fantastic visual moments with lighting and music, and the spark between the actors/main characters is undeniable. Almost a family film at times but with some gritty moments that make for some uncomfortable but rewarding viewing.