En Wild flower (Estados Unidos-Canada, 2023) – the first feature film from director Matt Smukler – Bea (Kiernan Shipka) is a teenager who falls into a coma after a terrible accident.
It was in the hospital where he was interned that we met his colorful family. It turns out that Bea is the daughter of Sharon (Samantha Hyde, a professional actress with autism) and Derek (Dash Mihok), a marriage in which both are neurodivergent, although in some cases they use the euphemism “special” when referring to them. , as in the case of the survey called “retrasados”.
How did I get Bee to that hospital room? This is the secret that Bee will tell us (in her voice). turned off y constants memories) throughout their lives, going back to their childhood days and even before, they tell the story of how their fathers met, whether they were home and whether they were embarrassed, even against the wishes of all their children.
With a register between comedy and drama, we are faced with a peculiar majority where all the classic problems of adolescence (love, sex, partying, school) come together in a more complex way: caring for a family at such an early age. And this is why Bea must take care of her fathers, given their condition, if they often act like children.
Although Derek does a humble job, he is the one who cleans the house, gives him his medicine, takes him to the top, and does a few gas jobs. Bea is a teenager who became independent out of necessity. You can’t count on disappointment: a teenager can go to a prestigious university to study natural sciences, but she can’t be left alone with her father. “The sin of my death.”
As for the ugly department (Alexandra Daddario, Jean Smart, Jacki Weaver and Brad Garrett), for example, Kiernan Shipka (credited as Sally, Don Draper’s daughter in Mad Men), which brings the totality of the belt with a convincing charisma and ability to interpret this teenager, so independent (demasiado for her age), but learns once again from her family, which represents for her a plate from which it is impossible to wean.
The film is based on the life of Christina Stahl, the story of her neurodivergent fathers, and her story chronicled in the documentary of the same name (Wild flower2020) directed by Matt Smuckler, aka Christina.
This is not the first time we have seen such a story: it TAIL (Heder, 2021), Ruby (Emilia Jones) is a teenager who gives up her singing career to look after her deaf father. The difference is that it is placed at the bottom. Wild flower for example one feel good moviehe’s not as smug and inoffensive as the (inexplicable) 2022 Best Picture Oscar winner.
Wild flower it’s more than one majoritywhich puts the debate on the rights of neurodivergent people on the table in Casars, keep hijo and be happy.
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