
Can there ever be anything more Sundancey than a tear-soaked coming-of-age film? This is not an attack on the genre in any way, though. The films that explore such beaten pathways can be quite rewarding, just as Megan Park’s young person film ‘My Old Ass’ demonstrated with some degree of sophistication at this year’s Sundance. By contrast, writer-director Laura Chinn’s competitive entry in the US Dramatic Competition, ‘Suncoast,’ is more in the trend of teenage films that are easily forgettable, offering little in the way of real progression of its characters and failing to expand its entrenched themes.
A teenage Doris, played by Nico Parker (The Last of Us) (Doris), is the protagonist of this semi-autobiographic story told by Chinn. Doris finds it hard to cope with life conditions wherein her brother Max (Cree Kawa) is dying and her mother Kristine (Laura Linney, though underused quite considerably) is an exaggerating character prone to emotional tantrums. Proceeding further, Doris appears to be quite sensible as well as quite friendly with an adolescent tendency of being quite hesitant which results in her being completely unappreciative of her great looks because of being overshadowed by her brother’s ailment. As the progression of the illness gets to the point when the dependent expects the end to come, the family decides to move Max to a hospital facility. During this time, Kristine begins to go on long night shifts to the hospice. This is the time when Kristine has moved Max to the same occupied hospital where Doris’ Paul Warren happens to be an activist involved in the case against Kristine and Scott, and today surrounds the case regarding a woman called Terri Schiavo, which is MarKed a breakthrough in the fight for the right to die.
In Paul and Doris’s storyline, the viewers also get to witness how the characters refrain from age-old eyeing each other aggressively and slowly try and establish a bond of friendship with one another. Such dynamics do not come through authentic emotions and rhythms in Chinn’s writing bringing up the concern of the depth and dimension it needs. Other failures are more noticeable when considering Doris’ progression through her process of coming out of the shell. She then wanted to make up for it by throwing a party while her mother was out with her friends. At that time, her new friends Dorr, Ella Anderson, Daniella Taylor, Amarr, and Ariel Martin did not even occur to Kwan. However, it does sound improbable that someone as friendly as Doris goes unnoticed. Partying at school generates perpetual social movement, and it normalizes when Donovan starts appearing people in circles. Interestingly, Chinn does not let us down to these expectations this crew at the start looks like using Doris. But as it turns out, when a moment of truth strikes, teenagers know how to act responsibly and stand by each other. Of that, Doris then has her new clan of friends who come in handy as and when needed.
Overall, though, the film lacks an emotional center, instead flipping back and forth between the hospice and Doris’ new friends, Kristine’s clinical obsession, as well as the Paul and Doris relationship. Of particular irritation is the last one: Paul just too conveniently comes in and out of the story like a ghost whenever Doris needs an outside voice. This piece is essentially well, it could have been. There are enough storylines surrounding this friendship that one could practically fill an entire film with it. But in this case, and while condemning her method, Chinn does not use this material at the core of the story. The plot fails to realize its greatness as a result.
It is also common to get the urge to want something more fully fleshed out for Kristine in Black, perhaps the picture has different things in store for her but at this point in “Suncoast,” she is a mother who has lost control. Caught in an impossible situation and also a mother, we do not get the sad moments where she nurtures the children, which is kind of mean in a way. The movie also does not address the fact that she is a white woman who is a mother to a black girl. In the first half of “Suncoast,” Doris is seen defying her mother’s request for her to sit in the rear of the vehicle by expertly stating that she has natural hair. To this, Kristina replies, why does your hair bother you? Essentially, Kristine’s responses tended to come off as dismissive and defensive which left an uncomfortable aftertaste.
There is, however, a sensibility there, and as Doris does repeatedly and with more certainty each time, there is a point at which she can place herself foremost in her priorities. So there are other plans for her, and as a result, she has to attend her prom on a significant day for Max, and she deals with the repercussions of her absence maturely. Personally, “Suncoast” had a middle and happy ending where both sides kissed and made up with each other but it still leaves you with a lingering feeling that the whole time you were watching a sanitized tale which could have been a lot better in the first place.
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