Suncoast
A tears bringing coming of age movie is as sundance-y as anything can be. This is not at all an attack against that genre. Such films are comforting and satisfying, even when they seem familiar, as evidenced by Megan Park’s “My Old Ass,” which premiered at Sundance this year with a tender touch. By comparison, US Dramatic Competition entry “Suncoast” from writer director Laura Chinn falls into the lesser category of teen movies made in the past few years; it lacks believable character development or enough substance to connect its themes.
The semi autobiographical story from Chinn follows teenager Doris (Nico Parker, lovable in “The Last of Us”) as she tries to live her life while caring for her terminally ill brother Max (Cree Kawa) and strong-willed mother Kristine (Laura Linney, wasted in an underwritten part), who tends toward emotional outbursts. Doris is smart and likable but oddly unambitious as a teenager so much so that it seems like she has no idea how beautiful she is on the inside and out, maybe because she’s always seen herself in the shadow of her brother’s sickness. When Max becomes a waiting game, they move him to hospice care where Kristine begins spending nights. And here is where Woody Harrelson’s activist Paul Warren enters Doris’ world amid the early-aughts landmark right-to-die court case of Terri Schiavo, who was in the same vegetative state at the hospital where Kristine moved Max.
Paul and Doris’ slow-developing friendship doesn’t ring emotionally true with Chinn’s script lacking depth and dimensionality required for such things. But elsewhere Chinn successfully depicts Doris’ coming-out process. Taking advantage of her mom’s frequent absence at night, she starts throwing parties with sleepovers with her brand new crew of friends. At first, her new friends played by Ella Anderson, Daniella Taylor, Amarr and Ariel Martin don’t even seem to know who Doris is, which seems unlikely given how outwardly friendly she is. But her circle widens once her house becomes the school’s party hub. And endearingly Chinn subverts our expectations about this crew that we think are using Doris at first and prove that teenagers can rise to the occasion when necessary; they lend a helping hand to Doris’ new group of friends when she needs them most.
On the whole however, there is a lack of emotional center in the film as it bounces between hospice care, Doris’ new circle of friends, Kristine’s desperation and Paul & Doris’ relationship. That last thread especially feels frustrating with too many convenient appearances from Paul like a ghost whenever Doris needs his voice from outside. You could make an entire movie on this friendship alone or on any other thing that Doris is going through. But stacked against each other, Chinn only scratches the surface of the story here and ultimately that doesn’t feel like enough.
Additionally, with regard to “Suncoast”, one always wishes for something meatier where Kristine is concerned. She is a loving mother who cares too much and is given an impossible situation; however, we do not see enough calm moments from her in contrast to her justifiable anger. This film does not address the fact that she is a white parent of a black child either. In one early scene of “Suncoast,” when her mother tells Doris to ride in the back of their truck because of her hair being natural (which Doris objects to), Kristine replies dismissively “Your hair? Really?” It’s an uncomfortable moment.
Nevertheless, Chinn can be commended for making an effort at having Doris slowly start caring about herself before it’s too late seeing herself as more than just Max’s sister who will eventually lose him forever anyway. So she goes against what should have been done on any other night with Max and attends prom instead, taking grown-up responsibility for her decision even though she knows he needs her most right then.“Suncoast” wraps things up neatly after this point by showing reconciliation between characters but still somehow feels like another movie softened up towards the end, like it wants to be more than yet another Disney flick.
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