freak the parents

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Famously sweet in Little Women and scary in TV’s Sharp Objects, Eliza Scanlen is eye-grabbingly good in this delicately dark and slyly funny coming-of-age story.

She brings a dazzling range of feeling to shy, seriously ill Sydney schoolgirl Milla, who falls headlong for slacker drug dealer Moses (a playful Toby Wallace) to her sophisticated parents’ horror. Determined to live large, rather than just stay alive, Milla throws herself into Moses’ drifting, hustling lifestyle, until her parents Anna and Henry come up with an unusual solution.

First-time feature director Shannon Murphy (best S3) creates a film of dreamy summer beauty, its choppy chapters (complete with intertitles) letting the story jump and wander intriguingly. Tracking its lovers with an Andrea Arnold-style handheld camera, the film weaves engagingly natural performances into a stylised, pastel colour scheme, full of shimmering blues.