Film student and Possible Worlds intern Meredith Mantik previews Grown Up Movie Star.
From filmmaker Adriana Maggs comes the indie coming-of-age drama Grown Up Movie Star, featuring acclaimed actor Shawn Doyle (TV’s Big Love) alongside rising star Tatiana Maslany (who won an acting award for the role at this year’s Sundance Film Festival).
Following his shattered hockey career and his wife’s departure to pursue ill-gotten dreams of stardom in Hollywood, Ray struggles to adapt to his Newfoundland home and to care for his two teenage daughters, Ruby and Rose.
14-year-old Ruby’s isolation and lack of parental guidance finds her in desperate need of attention and compels her to follow her newly awakened sexuality, is she getting to close to her dad's friend Stuart, is she really a lesbian, is it too soon to have sex with the cool American guy from school? Ray, seeking to reclaim the freedom necessary to move on with his life, pursues a similar path, albeit with less confidence, unsure what to make of his attraction to the hunky sports teacher at his daughter's school.
Shawn Doyle comments, “To me the film really centres on the parallel journeys of Ray and Ruby’s sexual awakenings. Ray’s journey is a move to salvation and Ruby’s is towards a darker, more dangerous course that she ultimately has to be rescued from. However in this rescue, Ruby finds her own love and salvation with her father.”
Magg's generous characterization means no one is entirely right... or wrong.
“I wanted to tell a story where nobody was clearly evil, because I don’t know any evil people,” Maggs explains. “I know a lot of people who are the product of their circumstances.”
One of the central themes to the story - learning to be comfortable in your own skin and in the place you are at in your life - is examined through the inherent isolation of the small east coast province of Newfoundland and the natural desire of its locals to leave for perceived greener pastures.
“Writing a script that truly communicated Newfoundland culture, dialect, the strength of the people, the challenges that they face – this was all very important to me. There is something so incredibly special about this place. It is one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, but it is isolated and so many people here wrestle with ambitions to leave,” says Maggs, a displaced Newfoudlander.
Newfoundland’s association with always looking for greener pastures is an ideal environment for Grown Up Movie Star as Maggs describes the film as “ultimately about people on different sides of their dreams".
"Ray’s dreams were crushed when he was ousted from the NHL, but he pursues another one when he embraces his sexuality. Ruby is confusing a dream she has of going to Hollywood with her dream of having a mother. Stuart’s future was taken from him when he lost his legs and his dreams of having a woman to love him have devastating consequences.”
Set in a place where humour and pain go hand-in-hand and comedy is a means of dealing with life, Grown Up Movie Star is a brilliantly nuanced and darkly honest film about what it means to be yourself and what it means to be family.
Grown Up Movie Star has its Australian premiere on August 8th.