A One Mann’s Movies review of “Sweetheart” (2021).
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
When I was in my late teen’s, Bill Forsyth’s “Gregory’s Girl” perfectly epitomised the angst of the school years’ emotions I’d left behind me. And I was very much heterosexual. With “Sweetheart”, Marley Morrison in an astonishing feature debut delivers a “Gregory’s Girl” for today’s much more sexually fluid times.
A.J. (Nell Barlow) eye to eye with Isla (Ella-Rae Smith). (Source: Peccadillo Pictures).
Plot Summary:
April Jane (Nell Barlow), or “A.J.” as she now likes to style herself, is a seventeen-year-old who is struggling to find her place in the world. She’s forced into going on holiday to a UK beach resort with her fragmenting family – mother Tina (Jo Hartley), currently estranged from her husband, pregnant older sister Lucy (Sophia Di Martino), her boyfriend Steve (Samuel Anderson) and younger sister Dayna (Tabitha Byron). The truculent teen is a pressure cooker ready to explode.
But help, or hindrance, is on hand with the blond and gorgeous ‘lifeguard-babe’ Isla (Ella-Mae Smith). Although having come out as a lesbian, is A.J. sufficiently sure of her sexuality to make a pass at, and have a sexual encounter with, the vision that is Isla?
A very believable caring mum. Jo Hartley as Tina. (Source: Peccadillo Pictures*).
Certification:
Talent:
Starring: Nell Barlow, Jo Hartley, Ella Rae-Smith, Sophia Di Martino, Samuel Anderson, Tabitha Byron.
Directed by: Marley Morrison.
Written by: Marley Morrison.
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Stars of the new Freshwater Beach Holiday Park promo video. From left, Tabitha Byron, Sophia Di Martino, Jo Hartley, Nell Barlow and Samuel Anderson. (Source: Peccadillo Pictures).
“Sweetheart” Review:
Positives:
- What a great ensemble cast! It’s all headed up by Nell Barlow, amazingly in her feature debut. Nell manages to perfectly deliver the hair-pullingly frustrating unpredictability of a teenage girl: always planning to go off doing something worthy like “knitting jumpers for elephants in Indonesia”. But she manages to keep the portrayal just the right side of parody, not straying into ‘Kevin and Perry’ territory. “What’s wrong with you?” asks her mother. “I’m 17. Everything’s wrong with me” she replies. It’s an immaculate performance for someone so young.
- Jo Hartley is also fabulous as A.J.’s mum, a lost soul struggling with her own worries, without having those of AJ to add to them. It’s not portrayed as a typical ‘Mum v Teen’ battle, but beautifully nuanced. “Just because you’re a lesbian now, it doesn’t mean you have to dress like a boy” she pleads with A.J.
- If you’re trying to place her, Ella Rae-Smith was the striking girl in the baseball cap in Netflix’s “The Stranger”. She is also wonderful here, as the ‘hot girl’ who you think has it all but is underneath deeply troubled and conflicted. A sex scene (beautifully lit and filmed by Emily Almond Barr and Matthew Wicks) manages to show absolutely nothing but is deliciously erotic as a result.
- The writing by Marley Morrison feels very autobiographical. And, as I found through reading this Guardian article about Morrison’s gender-journey, there is a lot of personal experience in here. It’s clever that the film is claustrophobically set in the remote holiday park (actually the real Freshwater Beach Holiday Park near Bridport on the Dorset coast). If it had been set in a big city like London, AJ could have constantly fled from her feelings, never resolving them. Here, she is constantly running into Isla…. there is no escape.
- I also very much liked the relationship written between A.J. and Steve. Steve is almost the safety valve on the pressure cooker, always helpfully allowing some steam to escape. It adds warmth to the story.
- For such an indie picture, there’s a range of great tunes on the soundtrack: mostly from bands I have never heard of (probably making it affordable). I’m not sure if there’s to be a soundtrack album released, but it’s worth a listen if so.
A vision drifts by. Ella-Rae Smith as Isla. (Source: Peccadillo Pictures*).
Negatives:
- I wasn’t fond of the sound mix on the film. Some of the dialogue was indistinct. (I seem to be saying that a lot at the moment… perhaps I need my ears checked!).
- A.J. gives us an occasional running commentary of her thoughts as a voiceover. Regular readers will know my thoughts on this subject! I’m not sure if it added much to the story: a ‘show-not-tell’ approach would have been my preference.
Samuel Anderson as Steve. Adding a much needed friendly shoulder, and warmth to the film. (Source: Peccadillo Pictures*).
Summary Thoughts on “Sweetheart”
I always find it vaguely amusing (as well as a little irritating) that teenagers think that their angst and pain is completely unknown to ‘grown-ups’. As if teens have to go through those terrible years of hormone-fuelled torture, but their parents/grandparents were somehow born fully formed at the age of 30! “Urrrggghhhhhhh… YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!”. Yes, we do! (Although we might forget what hell it was from time to time.) So a film like this, so beautifully realised, helps to refresh the memory of old gits like me.
I likened this film to 1980’s “Gregory’s Girl”, and that’s a great compliment. That movie made stars out of John Gordon Sinclair and Clare Grogan. I’d predict similar great things for Nell Barlow, Ella Rae-Smith and particularly for writer/director Marley Morrison. I’ll very much look forward to Marley’s future projects.
It’s a cracking little British film. It deserves a major cinema release, but I suspect this is one that you might need to hunt out at your less mainstream cinemas. But please do so – it’s well worth it. Very much recommended.
Trailer for “Sweetheart”:
The trailer is here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YjFbMbfXaQ .
* Pictures taken as screenshots from the trailer.
