I Believe in Unicorns
??? (out of 5 stars)
Program: Narrative features
Leah Meyerhoffs debut feature ought to be stamped with an expiration date, its so fresh and sweet. Or maybe it should come with an age limit, because Im not sure anyone over 30 is capable of being lulled by this montage of dreamy girliness enough to ignore the predictable plot.
Sixteen-year-old Davina (Natalia Dyer, looking maybe 13) floats in a mental fairy-tale land of cupcakes and tutus and glitter and, yes, unicorns until she meets the cutest skater boy, Sterling (Peter Vack), and its young love, true love, until they run away together and things go bad on the road. Whats frustrating about the after-school-special feel of the narrative is that theres meatier conflict to be dug into. Davinas excursions into cloud-cuckoo-land are understandable when contrasted with her day-to-day life: Her mother is badly disabled with multiple sclerosis and confined to a wheelchair; when she falls out, its up to this 86-pound teen to deal with it, because her father is out of the picture. (The filmmakers mother, who is in fact wheelchair-bound with MS, plays Davinas mother.)
Theres nothing wrong with a timeworn plot, but scenes between Dyer and Vack feel like acting exercises carried out with the thinnest of improv skills. The dream sequences and montages of Davina taking pictures or wandering Northern California with Sterling capture her emotional life beautifully the images of cartwheels and lace dresses and stuffed animals are nothing new to anyone whos seen Tumblr, yes, but theyre quite skillfully executed. Meyerhoff shot Unicorns on film an extreme rarity today, and in fact she used some of the last 16 mm Fuji film stock ever manufactured lending the movie exactly the hazy, washed-out, glinty-squinty atmosphere it requires. Her manipulation of the look of the film is masterful.
Meyerhoff has said that the plot is quasi-autobiographical; almost any woman could tell a story like this one from her teenage years, and thats both its weakness and its strength. Unicorns is a true love-it-or-hate-it, impossible to rate some viewers will adorn it with five sequin-covered stars, and others will give it one big eye-roll. If you want a warm bubble bath of Rookie-ready daydreams, then the trite story wont matter its just the framework for the pictures, like a fashion-mag editorial spread. But if feeling like youve seen. This. Movie. A hundred times already outweighs your enjoyment of the scenery, best to steer clear. Jessica Bryce Young