Sophie Jones

I am hoping I can expect more of my three young ones than this disgraceful and dysfunctional display....... Really creepy to think this is a relationship representation......

I too found the lead Sophie Jones totally distasteful in the first few minutes of the film and this did not improve in fact worsened if anything......

I was blown away by this film. The way it's made feels tender and delicate and personal. Everything here feels familiar and painful and dreamlike to anyone that's experienced the loss of the parent -- the internal desperation in loss, especially if you're a young person when you experience it, in trying to hold onto things and pushing them away by throwing your emotions into something else, searching for your memory in smells, talking outloud to them as if they're still there. Jessie's direction of the actors is fantastic and raw and real. And the intimacy of the characters' journeys feels so real and present. This is such a beautiful piece and I'll be thinking of it for some time.

Director Jessie Barr's smooth peer into teenage parental death feels refreshingly more Bergman than, well, a lot American directors. Her soft touch allows the viewer to feel and absorb through brevity of words versus peripatetic, loquacious ramblings. The lead and supporting actors lend a natural and intrusive peek into their lives that felt documented not contrived.

Contemplative and enjoyable.

There's a lot to admire here. The cast is uniformly excellent, especially the unknown young actors who genuinely look like high school students. And it's a handsome production despite what I'm guessing was a micro indie budget. The biggest problem I had with the film was Sophie herself (and Jessica Barr who plays her and is every bit as annoying as her screen personage). The character is a real pill, and I grew annoyed with her within the first 15 minutes. Accordingly, the 85-minute run time felt a lot longer. Maybe high school girls who see the film (will they even know it exists?) will have a different reaction. Overall it reminded me of an Eliza Hittman ("Never Rarely Sometimes Always") movie--esp Hittman's debut, "It Felt Like Love"--but not as good.

Sophie Jones is a simple and delicate film, with so much going on under the surface. The characters felt complex, authentic, and appropriately high school aged -- not only physically, but also with just the right amount of angst. It's one of those films that you can tell was birthed through real trauma and pain, but from someone who has done a lot of healing on the other side of that trauma. So, as an audience member, you feel taken care of. You trust the filmmaker to lead you into truth, and into a better place.