○Cole Webley's debut film “Maha'' (“The Lovers Kill''), written by Robert Machoan, is notable for the fact that it is literally the first time the two have come together, and for better or worse, it is a Sundance movie. This is a work that is a great result of the festival. tone. Understated, melancholic, quiet but moving, this John Magaro-led character study is, fittingly, mostly filmed in the festival's home state of Utah (for now). It's mostly a tense family drama with its cards close to its chest and, visually at least, an ode to the marginal and fragile states that can be accessed by the roads of the American West.
When Ella, played by rising newcomer Molly Bell Wright, and her brother Charlie (played by the charming Wyatt Solis) get into a car at the behest of their silent father (Magaro), the bedsheets are still warm and the dawn light is dim. Still pale. He declined to say where he's going beyond “travelling,” but the way Magaro hunches his shoulders and shifts his gaze suggests it's not for fun.
Webley smartly follows the perspective of nine-year-old Ella, who has a child's ardent desire to impress and help her parents, but is also fully aware that she cannot fully trust them. go in and out. It's 2008, evidenced by subtle but effective period details like a John McCain sign in an abandoned house, an installed car radio, and a copy of Twilight in Ella's last-minute luggage. This family is clearly one of many on a downward spiral. As they drive away, the sheriff slams seizure papers on the door.
Macho Anne's screenplay is lean and realistically light on the details of their situation, but enough to convey a family teetering on the edge, in an unspoken crisis, hoping it won't fall apart. It reveals a lot. Their mother died from an illness many years ago. Their father, played by Magaro, is on the verge of shaking with grief and poorly concealed stress, but he can't afford to buy two kites at a gas station (just as this slice of America just passes by). (He was photographed in childlike amazement at the beauty of kites.) barren, drab, or shabby). Webley has a knack for capturing the speed and great contrast of American road trips: the claustrophobic comfort of a car interior and the wide open space outside. We look at the weathered hatchback from every angle – above, behind, inside and out – as it makes its lonely, fateful journey down Interstate 80 east.
Why go to Omaha? Their father hasn't said. (The afterword somehow reverse-engineers the film, adding a historical texture that makes it feel more grounded.) The journey there is largely about making the most of a questionable situation. It starts off thanks to a very convincing performance from Wright, who plays the exploitative child. With her looks and her naturalistic, introverted performance, she recalls Charlotte Wells' Frankie Corio in Aftersun. The film is another shocking debut about a single father trying to make ends meet for his daughter, who is just old enough to realize something is wrong. Playing a 6-year-old, Solis has the comic timing of someone far more accomplished. Together, the two young actors give Omaha humor and natural gravitas. The majority of the film's compact 83-minute running time is spent watching the kids enjoy themselves in a motel pool, playing a simple game of “Which one should I take?” It's both cuddly and funny at the same time.
Omaha reels when it reaches its destination and its simmering despair reaches an almost unbelievable boiling point. However, Talia Balsam's late presence injects a bit of much-needed outside perspective into the events of a closed family with diminishing returns. Magaro was given the extremely difficult task of playing a parent forced to make an unimaginable choice due to extreme stress, and she almost nailed it. But the macho screenplay rushes through the final act like a band-aid, delivering a quick stomach-churning but not the awful devastation of the previous hour. Omaha and her children's father are holding on, especially as the aftermath leaves them paralyzed.
Nevertheless, the hypnotic nature of Webley's visual style, the fleeting and gorgeous moments of sunrise and sunset speed, the quiet cohesion and fragments of loosening in crisis, capture Omaha's brutal but overwhelming remains after the final act. This is an entirely promising debut for Webley, and should be a breakout for the young Wright as well, and while the film may ultimately be indistinguishable from many of the tighter, lighter dramas at Sundance, Ella makes you believe that you will always be remembered.
