image+nation culture queer

SWEETHEART

Marley Morrison | UNITED KINGDOM | 2021 | 94 min | ENGLISH

A dysfunctional family descends upon Freshwater Beach Holiday Park where snarky, 17-year-old AJ learns that her lifeguard crush, Isla, isn’t the fembot she deems her to be. And that attraction – like a neon Flamingo sign in the night – has a way of seeping in.

AJ (Nell Barlow), her mother (an extraordinary Jo Hartley), her two sisters of vastly different ages (Tabitha Brown and Sophie Di Martino), and her older sister’s infinitely supportive partner (a charming Samuel Anderson) arrive to enjoy the British seaside. The family vacation has come at a time of AJ questioning everything: the future of the planet, the unspoken reasons of her parent’s divorce. Gender. The anxiety causes her to rely on unlikability and a superiority complex as her defences. Even when it comes to Isla (Ella-Rae Smith), with her sun-kissed curls and killer smile, AJ hides behind her tinted aviators, bucket hat, and Billie Eilish-aloofness, shunning the patterns of others. Marley Morrison’s feature debut serves arch cynicism with its sweetness, unpacking the paradoxical relationship between growth and change, and asking: what if you and those you love can be more than the limitations you set?

in-cinema screening (venue TBC) | NOVEMBER 26 – 6PM