Splatter: on FILM

Senior year at her Catholic school, a girl with abnormal charisma and confidence changes her name and takes on her toughest critic: her mother.Everyone wants to be loved. This film speaks to the soul of the everyday, normal, individual you that doesn’t feel approved of, noticed, or truly seen. Her issues resonate because in some ways they are universal.This film is a conversation being picked up, spun round, remembered and circled back to. Scenes and dialogue cut and jog but somehow maintain fluidity, grace, and humor.
The early 2000’s, Dave Matthews’ “Crash,” neutral and dark oversized shirts, Kool-aid dyed hair, thrift shopping for prom gowns, and high school musicals make every moment hilarious and true. It’s almost a little too close to home.From the opening scene listening to books on tape in the car with her mother to sneaking communion wafers with her best friend, this is all real. It’s about hope and finding satisfaction in yourself and in the family you were born into, and learning to love and pay attention to both for the broken wonderful things that they are. Because after all, in the end maybe loving and paying attention are the same thing.