‘Sweetness’ Review – Misery Meets MCR in Emma Higgins’ Bold Debut About Teen Angst and Obsessive Fandom

Writer/director Emma Higgins introduced her debut film, Sweetness, at the Fantasia International Film Festival by saying it was for “girls who shop at Hot Topic, wear too much eyeliner, coloured hair, people on SSRIs, the emos, for Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance—it’s for anyone who has ever loved a musician or had a broken heart or [felt] unrequited love. It’s for the horror fans and it’s for Canadians.”

It’s the perfect intro to this gem of a psychological thriller, which I adored.

I really hope this movie takes off, and I look forward to seeing it get a theatrical release, so more people get a chance to see it. It’s a great sign of the current state of Canadian filmmaking! Made with an all-Canadian cast, crew, and production, the movie was shot in North Bay, Ontario and is set in a fictional small town in Ontario, to boot.

I make such a point of this because it’s refreshing to see a movie set and made in Canada that feels this high-calibre. Obviously, there are homegrown cult classic gems like Ginger Snaps (which feels like an influence here, to some degree), but this gives me some hope for the future of the Canadian film industry. This thing is slick, well-shot, cleverly written, and well-paced, with an excellent cast and great balance of tone. The Fantasia crowd was eating it up too, hooting and hollering at the film’s twists and turns, which only enhanced the experience of seeing it on a big screen.

Sweetness follows Rylee (Kate Hallett), a lonely sixteen-year-old girl who’s bullied at school, is grieving her mother, and has a fraught relationship with her emotionally stunted cop dad (Justin Chatwin) and his new girlfriend (Amanda Brugel). Her only source of solace amidst all of that turmoil comes from the songs of her favourite band, Floorplan, led by a Gerard Way-esque pop star named Payton Adler (Herman Tømmeraas), whose lyrics suggest he may be the only person in the world who truly understands Rylee’s angst.

What starts as a simple story about teenage obsession slowly devolves into cringe-inducing sickly sweet delusion after a chance post-concert encounter leads Rylee to discover that Payton is a dysfunctional drug addict, pushing her to take it upon herself to fix him.

I’m a sucker for stories about desperate people who get themselves into a hole and inevitably end up digging themselves deeper and deeper. Every time I wondered if the movie would go there—it did, and each time, I got more and more on board.

Sweetness was the first film at this year’s Fantasia that really got its hooks in me and had me feeling elated walking out of the theatre after. One of its big strengths is that it knows exactly what it is and delivers on the promise of its premise without overstaying its welcome.

That largely comes down to the tight script and balancing act performance from Kate Hallett. Despite what very easily could have tipped over into an unbelievable or hard-to-swallow premise, the film never broke my suspension of disbelief. And every time it upped the ante, I bought in further, which is a difficult thing to pull off.

Visually, the movie is also incredibly self-assured, especially for a debut feature on a relatively small budget. It just has a ton of style, from the poster design to the title font to the score and original songs by Blitz//Berlin, which have just the right amount of pop cringe. It all feels polished and adds to the style and tone of the movie.

But the real star here, as mentioned, is Hallett as Rylee. The character is a tough one to pull off, because Rylee has to be sympathetic and easy to root for, while descending into more and more questionable moral territory as the movie progresses.

In the Q&A after the screening, Higgins said she wrote the character as the heroine of the story—because she is. Rylee believes wholeheartedly that she’s in the right every step of the way. And the only way a story like this works is if the script is on her side. We, as an audience, may or may not be, but Rylee is the protagonist and the heroine and the driving force. As Higgins elaborated, it’s the plot that’s in opposition to her. Rylee’s the hero of her own story, even though her actions may be less-than-heroic when taken in a broader context.

As wild as the film gets, it’s rooted in the emotional truth of being a teenage girl. A lot of teenage girldom is often dark and difficult and lonely and crazy-making. By tapping into those emotions, we can always at least understand what’s motivating Rylee, even if we can’t necessarily condone the outcome. It’s that tension that the movie holds in perfect balance.

In lesser hands, the character could easily have fallen flat and brought the whole movie down with her. It’s to the film’s credit that it always treats Rylee as a sympathetic character. She may be an emotional, delusional, grieving, obsessive teenage girl, but the film takes her seriously, which makes us as an audience take her seriously and see her as more than one-dimensional.

That’s not to say the movie takes itself too seriously. Part of why it works so well is that it doesn’t and has a very dark sense of humour about its subject matter. The film consistently delivers laughs, thrills, chills, sweetness, and violence, making a perfectly balanced cocktail for a good time at the movies.

Verdict

Sweetness gets a strong recommend from me. This psychological thriller gem has an excellent handle on tone and style, with great performances and an awesome script from writer/director Emma Higgins. It’s a modern-day Misery for girls who had an emo phase in high school, or anyone who’s been so infatuated with someone out of their reach that it makes them feel a little crazy. Whenever it gets a wider release, go see this one with a crowd, and enjoy the ride. We certainly did.