Movie info via Sundance:
A teenager who, while caring for her brother along with her audacious mother, strikes up an unlikely friendship with an eccentric activist who is protesting one of the most landmark medical cases of all time. Inspired by a semi-autobiographical story.
Writer-director Laura Chinn makes an unforgettable debut with a script inspired by her own teenage experience. Set in 2005 in St. Petersburg, Florida, Suncoast is a sensitively told coming-of-age story as Chinn’s young heroine finds friendship through unexpected connections and gestures and is forced to reckon with the gravity of her brother’s health. In a breakout role, Nico Parker embodies Doris, an awkward high schooler whose unique and troubling home life ultimately provides opportunities for her freedom and an unexpected entrée into the popular kids’ clique. Laura Linney shines as Doris’ preoccupied mother and finds complex human behavior under unimaginable circumstances. Separately and together, a mother and daughter face a situation bigger than themselves that builds to a crescendo of deep emotional power and pathos.—KY
Review:
Suncoast, the feature writing and direct debut of Laura Chinn, is based on her experience of having a brother dying of cancer and who is moved to the same Suncoast hospice where Terri Schiavo was also a patient.
The fight between the right to die and the right to live was the main domestic story of 2005. It’s just a peripheral theme in Suncoast, something to give depth to what is a standard teen coming of age story. Schiavo is only seen in a brief shadow moment. What is seen is the protestors outside, which gives Chinn a chance to sympathetically expand the portrait of the religious protester.
Woody Harrelson plays that person who befriends the main lead, Doris (Nico Parker) becoming a substitute father, guide to life and grief counselor. His commitment to both religion and the Shiavo case comes from a deep tragedy that animates his moral core to pursue what he feel is the right thing. I suspect there are echoes of Chinn’s absent father in the portrayal. Harrelson too fills in the blanks with his own grief shadings, mainly the guilt he feels for being the son of a mob hitman. There is enough in his portrayal of Paul to resonate above his usual average performances and characters.
The hospice side of the story seems quite true to my experience- the bedside vigils, the total dedication to routine of keeping the near dying living, believing in the smallest crumbs of hope, the exclusion of anything beyond the dying loved one. Laura Linney as Kristine, the mother in perpetual grief, is solid . Her character isn’t exactly likeable for most of the film, but she is strong and determined, and feels achingly human.
Inbetween is Nico’s story, one that doesn’t really rise above the typical coming of age dramas. The shy girl who discovers ———- before growing up- you can easily fill in the blanks. Chinn is interested in seeing how Doris juggles the typical teen crisis, along the grief and the need for her own independence. The teen stuff gets resolved in the typical Hollywood way, so too those moments of rebellion and asking for independence. The grief, however, feels honest. It’s the one thing that lingers from Nico Parker’s performance. She’s obviously been watching Linney and taking notes.
Suncoast gets a 3.0/5 or a B. it will be streaming on Hulu February 9th.
It’s streaming as part of Sundance 2024 . The virtual part of the festival runs from January 25-28.
Credits:
Directed by
Laura Chinn
Written by
Laura Chinn
Produced by
Jeremy Plager
Francesca Silvestri
Kevin Chinoy
Oly Obst
Starring
Cinematography
Bruce Francis Cole
Production
companies
- Freestyle Picture Company
- Seven Deuce Entertainment
Distributed by
Release date
- January 21, 2024(Sundance)
Running time
109 minutes[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
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