Sundance London: Tallulah review

Sundance London 2016: Tallulah review: Ellen Page delivers her best performance since Juno in this wistful tale from debut feature director Sian Heder.

Tallulah review by Paul Heath, June 2016.

Tallulah review

Kicking off this year’s Sundance London Film Festival is one of the favourites from the main festival back in January.

Tallulah is written and directed by Sian Heder, a talented filmmaker who is best known for her writing work on Netflix comedy Orange Is The New Black. Netflix are behind this original work, her feature debut that follows a young drifter, the title character played by Ellen Page, who spends her days living out of the back of her van, scavenging for food scraps in waste bins from restaurants and shying away from the conformity of modern society. Following a bust-up with her boyfriend Nico (Evan Jonigkeit), a young man from a relatively comfortable background in Manhattan, Tallulah travels to the city to try to look for her love, and there manages to find his mother Margo (Alison Janney), a soon-to-be-divorcee who is also struggling with changes in her own life, and the loss of her son who left two years previous.

Tallulah review

After exhausting her options with Margo, Tallulah walks through the city and into a hotel to feast on room service leftovers, where she has a chance encounter with a struggling, and indeed intoxicated young mother Carolyn (Tammy Blanchard). Being mistaken for a hotel maid, Tallulah is asked by Carolyn to look after her young child for the rest of the day so that she can fulfil a rendezvous with a mysterious man. What happens next will end up changing both of their lives, and indeed those of the people around them, forever.

Tallulah is a light-hearted, though also quite deep comedy-drama that involves from the off. There are three truly superb performances – Ellen Page secures her best role since her wonderful turn in Juno, a character who one looks upon both shamefully and with empathy. It’s a superb performance and she’s a joy to watch in every scene, as is the reliable Alison Janney, a character who actually shares a lot with Page’s – just managing to keep everything together at a time when she stands to lose everything. Then there’s Tammy Blanchard’s Carolyn, a character also struggling with her own demons and again a performance worthy of mention from her introduction as the slightly-slutty, confident, provided for ‘real housewife’ of Beverly Hills, to the tormented should we see during the film’s closing scenes. A highlight in the all three actresses’ already gleaming resumes.

Tallulah review

Also look out for an extended cameo from Zachary Quinto as the new partner of Margo’s ex-husband, played by John Benjamin Hickey. The two actors play opposite Page and Janney in one of the film’s stand out, though gloriously awkward scenes two thirds in. The scene is wonderfully written and executed – in fact Heder’s writing is exemplary thoughout, her direction solid, and as a debut feature as a whole, this really rather impresses.

Tallulah review by Paul Heath, June 2016.

Tallulah screens at the Sundance London Film Festival from June 2nd, 2016.