FINAL GIRLS BERLIN 2022 Review: Kate Dolan’s YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER
Director Kate Dolan delivers an exceptional debut that’s been amply well-received by critics since its Toronto premiere late last year.
You Are Not My Mother, a film that deals heavily in the supernatural with subtle nods to witchcraft as a key plot tool, centers on Char (Hazel Doupe), a private school teenager beleaguered on multiple fronts: At school, she’s bullied by her peers, namely classmate Suzanne (Jordanne Jones) who also happens to be her neighbor. At home, Shar is forced to mitigate with the anxieties and depression of her mentally ill single mother, Angela (Carolyn Bracken), which ultimately pervades much of her shared environment with uncle Aaron (Paul Reid) and grandmother Rita (Ingrid Cragie).
Further making things worse is when Shar leaves school one afternoon and suddenly finds the family car abandoned in public with Angela all but gone for hours, until finally re-emerging later at home. All seems normal-ish, at first, as Angela is put on medication for her condition. Eventually, Shar starts noticing things that even she learns eventually that she can’t ignore – from discernible changes in Angela’s behavior to visibly brooding, gruesome and disturbing visions that point to a very clear sign that something is wrong, and something even worse may be on the horizon if something isn’t done.
Directed from a script also by Dolan, You Are Not My Mother presents a darkly introspective and thrilling spectacle that, in part, puts a great deal of social awareness into focus. Issues of mental illness and bullying are brought to light in service of the film’s progression. They’re tools used to perpetuate the film’s slow-burn, cerebral elevation into the fantastical, a good choice on Dolan’s part considering the film opens with a baby left out in an the dark of the evening until a woman takes the baby, and lights a fire around it – her intentions not made clear until much later in the film when we eventually learn who the woman in question is.
Further shaping the story are the some of the interesting connections that unfold as we watch Shar toil away at her teen years, mitigating with unruly classmate Suzanne and her sadistic friends. Even more consuming is the intrigue we observe surrounding the wariness and rumormongering by Shar’s neighbors in her small North Dublin neighborhood, some that are apparently much ado with Angela, who, at this juncture of the film, clearly isn’t herself. It’s a performance that actress Bracken entirely throws herself in, and it’s a remarkable watch as the film culminates right down to its climatic end.
I reiterate that I’m not all that much of a horror person like our own Christina Ortega, who can probably talk forever and a day about the genre in all its variety and cult glory. Nevertheless, the genre has its moments, and with all the right pieces put into the place and ingredients in the mix, You Are Not My Mother certainly does the trick.
Final Girls Berlin 2022
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!