Premise: A young girl who has been acting out since the death of her mother gets taken under the wing of a local magician.
I get why this wasn't the most talked about movie out of Sundance. It doesn't have a lot of big names tied to it in front of or behind the camera. The story is very low stakes. It's a lot more playful than most Sundance movies. There's no bravado filmmaking involved. But, dammit if this the most enjoyable movie I watched "at" Sundance.
As I said, the story is very simple. Sammy (Miya Cech) is a young teen who has been causing trouble since her mother died. She has a father (Leonardo Nam) who has retreated into his work since his wife died and a sister who spends most of her time on an MMORPG. Her father has been dating a new woman, which Sammy also hasn't been taking well. To keep her busy, Sammy's father enrolls her in a summer business class. After a chance encounter on her way to class one day, Sammy starts working instead with local kids magician, Marvelous Margot (Rhea Perlman). And, pretty much, Sammy learns to find her voice through magic.
I've said for years that the quickest way to my heart is a child swearing, so Miya Cech is an absolute treasure in this. Rhea Perlman is as good as ever too. She gets to show her sweeter side while still being as saucy as ever. I think Perlman is due for a late career resurgence. Has she reached her latter-day Cloris Leechman phase yet? She is one of the greats. The movie is full of "Oh yeah. That guy" types like Jonathan Slavin and Keith Powell who do what they're asked to.
As far as I'm concerned, this movie is great. It's short. It's funny. It's sweet. Writer/director Kate Tsang has made a very enjoyable movie with just enough emotion to ground it. I think it does have some audience confusion that will make it tough to break out though. It's really a family movie, but Sammy's swearing, dark sense of humor, and gory imagination will likely scare away a lot of those audiences, which is a shame. Hopefully I'm wrong though. I wish the best for this movie.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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