BABYTEETH
(15)
★★★★★
LOVE means letting go in Shannon Murphy’s emotionally shattering debut, a stylistically bold and offbeat rites-of-passage drama comedy, which secured the Australian director a berth behind the camera of the third series of Killing Eve.
Death also becomes Babyteeth as screenwriter Rita Kalnejais deftly navigates first love in the shadow of terminal illness a la The Fault In Our Stars.
Sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Milla Finlay (Eliza Scanlen) should have the world at her feet in between violin lessons and heart-to-hearts with her psychiatrist father Henry (Ben Mendelsohn) and concert pianist mother Anna (Essie Davis). Instead, Ben Mendelson as Milla is Henry and Essie contending Davis as Anna with cancer treatment and the realisation that she may slip from the loving embrace of this world without experiencing the pangs of love.
That changes on a train platform when 20-something homeless drug addict Moses (Toby Wallace) attempts to fleece her for money to feed his habit. Wise to his motivation, Milla obliges, setting in motion a fiery romance that burns white hot and shatters the polite order of her family home.
Despite fierce opposition to their daughter’s choice of beau, Henry and Anna are resigned to his presence to ensure their daughter spends her final moments adrift on adolescent bliss.
Babyteeth is a haunting fourhander, which could intoxicate just as easily on a theatre stage with beautifully written verbal exchanges and a meticulous eye for the beautiful imperfections of human relationships.
TEENAGE BOUNTY HUNTERS (NETFLIX) SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD twin sisters Blair (Anjelica Bette Fellini) and Sterling Wesley (Maddie Phillips) aren’t content with navigating the choppy waters of their elite high school where popularity can be fleeting.
The siblings also crave excitement by working part-time with veteran bounty hunter Bowser Jenkins (Kadeem Hardison). Keeping this sideline secret from their parents as well as Sterling’s boyfriend, the girls careen through a dangerous world of bail-skipping rogues.
Rival bounty hunter Terrance Coin (Method Man) tests Blair and Sterling’s sisterly solidarity as the teens contend with homework and hormones on the mean streets of Atlanta. ■ 10 episodes, streaming from August 14.