Babyteeth

An Australian family film. Milla is sixteen and ill. At a railway station she meets a man named Moses; he is older, sells drugs and has nowhere to stay. She brings him home. Her mother and father do not know what to do. The mother is a former pianist held up by pills. The father is a psychiatrist and writes his wife's prescriptions himself. Neither wants this man in the house, but they cannot bring themselves to say no to their daughter. What the film is interested in is not the illness but a family losing its authority to set rules. Everything Milla wants is granted, and the granting comes from fear more than from love. The narrative is divided into sections; the titles that appear on screen sometimes summarise the scene and sometimes mock it. The source is Rita Kalnejais's play; she wrote the screenplay as well. Eliza Scanlen plays Milla, Toby Wallace plays Moses, and Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn play the parents. Shannon Murphy directed; it is her first feature. The film was shown at Venice and Toby Wallace took the award for a young performer there. A good choice for anyone who likes family drama and narratives that step outside the usual patterns. Before you watch, know this: the film handles terminal illness directly, though without milking it.