Today,
I’m staying home for manufacturing workers in critical industries.
Very
cool movie. I heard about it a while back, when it was first getting
distribution, but I didn’t have a chance to see it until recently. Some of my
favorite parts about superhero movies/shows are always the ways that the
heroes’ powers are woven into their everyday lives, and this film, an intimate
kitchen-sink drama set amid superpowers, is totally my jam.
Ruth,
on the run by government scientists who want to study her powerful,
uncontrollable abilities, returns to the home she abandoned years ago, where
she reunites with her mother Bo, who’s been raising Ruth’s daughter Lila in her
absence. The three generations of the family come together again as Ruth seeks
a way to get a handle on her abilities and reforge relationships long since
splintered.
Not
so much a “superhero” movie as a movie about people with superpowers. Bo, Ruth,
and Lila all have inherited abilities passed down the matrilineal line. While
Bo and Lila can unstitch matter, unraveling it into fragments and then putting
it back together again, Ruth’s abilities are much more destructive for unknown
reasons. Her nightly “seizures” cause earthquakes, and she’s spent years
running from the damage and danger her powers can wreak, shying away from those
she might hurt unintentionally and hiding from those who would treat her like a
lab experiment.
Bo
and Lila have spent their lives on the family farm, with Lila dreaming of
seeing what’s out there. Ruth’s arrival throws everything out of whack. Aside
from the threat of the government scientists chasing her, her presence sends
shockwaves through the family dynamic. Bo, as much as she cares for her
daughter, is still angry with her for running away and doesn’t want Ruth to put
Lila in any danger. Lila is floored by revelations about her family history
that was kept from her, and while Bo holds up Ruth as a cautionary tale about
the importance of staying in hiding, Lila longs to break out of the
generations-long isolation as her mother did. And for Ruth, her issues with her
powers are all wrapped up in her relationships with both Bo and Lila, and in
repairing those, she just might find a way to start repairing herself as well.
It’s
an excellent story, deeply personal and female-focused in a way that imbues the
film with that fact without calling attention to it. The relationships remain
the focus, and the incredible powers (Bo and Lila’s are gorgeously rendered, by
the way) are a vehicle through which to explore this young woman, her mother,
and her daughter. It sucked me in all the way, and the emotions of the piece
definitely swept me away at times, especially in and around the affecting
climax.
I
don’t recall if the trailer had any reference to the movie’s setting, a
middle-America ravaged by a years-long drought. It’s the kind of light
sci-fi-ish/dytopian-ish backdrop that, rather than reframes the world the
characters inhabit, nudges it just slightly askew from the one we know. I like
the little notes and nods we get, like an old journal entry about young Ruth
standing at the edge of a dry lake, notices put up about the penalties of
wasting water, and a stray comment about no longer remembering what a proper
cup of coffee tastes like. While these details are a bit secondary to the main
story, they add a little extra interest to the proceedings.
The
cast is fantastic. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who I’ll always remember as Martha’s sister
Tish on Doctor Who but who I’ll
always adore as Dido in Belle, takes
the lead as Ruth. She’s damaged and guarded, she tries to eschew responsibility
even as she’s hounded by guilt, and she fears the power inside of her without
recognizing her true potential. Lorraine Toussant’s Bo is a salt-of-the-earth
woman who’s had powers so long they no longer feel remarkable to her, and her
driving need to protect her family can sometimes get in the way of her
relationships with them. Saniyya Sidney capably brings Lila to life, whip-smart
and good with her hands, proud of what she can do and chafing under the
constraints that Bo has placed on her. All three play beautifully off of each
other, and they’re joined by David Strathairn in a smaller role, playing the
local sheriff on Ruth’s trail.
Warnings
Violence,
language, and smoking/drug references.
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