[rating=10.00]
There’s a certain point in everyone’s life where the illusion that adulthood is some kind of definitive passage that leaves behind all the uncertainty and confusion of youth is totally and completely undone. It usually happens rather abruptly, when one day you look around and realize that you’ve been skating by as a legitimate grown-up, just like every single one of your peers.
It’s that awkwardly painful moment that’s the subject of co-writer/director Julia Hart’s latest film, Miss Stevens, who’s crafted a cinematic ode to the very feeling of being unprepared and overwhelmed by a sudden onset case of adulthood. Co-written by Hart’s husband Jordan Horowitz, Miss Stevens stars Lily Rabe as the title character, a 20-something high school English teacher who chaperones three students on a field trip to a state drama competition.
Once the four of them arrive at the hotel hosting the event, the feelings of one of her students, Billy (Timothy Chalet) start to surface. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what Billy’s feelings are, exactly. He’s sort of compulsively drawn to her, with some kind of want for platonic reciprocity. He hovers around her room, follows her around on errands, even casually calling her by her first name in conversation. What makes the film work is that Miss Stevens doesn’t really know how she wants to respond, let alone how she should.
It’s these moments of conflict that the charming, clumsy humanity of Rabe’s performance really comes to life. From stepping on her students’ words in class while later fumbling her own during casual conversation, she never loses sight her character’s likable charm. It’s clear why she was voted the Jury Award for Best Actress during SXSW earlier this year.
While her interactions with the other two students Sam (Anthony Quintal) and Margot (Lili Reinhart) show her slowing growing into the role of a teacher — the advice she gives to Margot after blowing a monologue is particularly delightful — it’s her interactions with Billy that challenge her role as an adult, what with all the uncertainty and doubt that she’s held onto her entire life.
Hart’s style here is a kind of asymmetrical whimsy, cut with a generous dose of Chekov’s untidiness, resulting is a poignant, wonderfully frustrating coming-of-age tale. Hart told IndieWire in March of this year about how she spent some time as a teacher, which helps make Miss Stevens seem personal but not nostalgic, but with a realistic sentimentality that allows it to be so effortlessly relatable.
It’s also a complete 180 from her last film, 2014’s excellent The Keeping Room, a stark, thrilling Western about three women left behind to work their family farm while wondering what became of their families after they marched off to war. Where The Keeping Room’s narrative relied on heart-piercing sounds and taught, edge-of-your seat moments, Miss Stevens tells an equally nuanced story, this time with a crisp indie-comedy sensibility.
Miss Stevens is now playing in New York and LA on September 16th; it’s available on VOD on September 20.
One Response