Babyteeth
The baby teeth in question are those of 16-year-old Milla (Eliza Scanlan), who is dancing and grooming her way through cancer. Director Shannon Murphy’s film, told as a series of predominantly linear vignettes, structurally subverts our expectations.
Babyteeth finds its heart in a non-traditional relationship that is far more prominent than the tragic reality of Milla’s condition. The story succeeds in the clumsy whimsy of fast-paced youth, while most of the pain happens in shadowy transit offscreen.
When Milla meets Moses (Toby Wallace), a troubled but charming small-time drug dealer, she’s instantly enamored. He enters and exits her life flippantly, seemingly without reason. He is a lovable distraction. Her troubled troubled parents, Anna and Henry (Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn), unsurprisingly don’t love Moses at first.
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Juggling youthful romance, illness, addiction and impotency, Babyteeth avoids potential clichés. Tragedy is tragic enough; why not focus on the whimsical, sun-textured flourishes surrounding it? —Grant Vance
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