Skip to main content

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL Review



Directed by: Jack C. Newell
Written by: Stephanie Mickus
Cast: Mia Rose Frampton, Stony Blyden, Juliette Angelo, Beau Brooks

High school is a strange time. For me, I like to frame that period as fraught with anger and rebellion. I tell myself that I was an artist trapped in a small town, a poet searching for his muse. The time when I was politically and emotionally alive. But then I look at the photos. Read some of the writing. And, oh boy, the truth crashes over me like an unwelcome but humbling wave of reality. The smoking without inhaling, the clothes from Structure (Burroughs didn't spend his paycheck at the mall), and the many, many, many configurations of embarrassing facial hair and coiffures, I was in desperate need of an identity.

On the surface, it might not sound like I would have a lot in common with a teenage girl dying of cancer, but HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL showed me otherwise. Hope Gracin (Mia Rose Frampton) has fully embraced her identity as the girl with terminal cancer. She's a vlogger and I assume that's the modern-day equivalent of the garage bands I putzed around with in the 90s. She see's herself as pragmatic with her approach to cancer. If people feel sorry for her, why not play it up? Allow teachers to pass her when she doesn't work and take a free coffee from the local barista. She might be dead any day, so why not? The problem is, she's eventually is given a clean bill of health. What do you do when you've built your identity around one thing and the world gives you another?

I get Hope because I remember searching for my sense of self. Finding your voice is one of the true milestones of youth that's often brushed over in coming of age stories. It's difficult to believe that HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL comes from a first-time screenwriter. The story fills utterly grounded and is surprisingly honest about what it means to be a teenager. The dialogue is witty without being overly clever and director Jack Newell allows the characters to be kids without ever looking down on them.

Most films approach coming of age through the lens of KIDS or SHE'S ALL THAT. Films that are either warnings to never let your children leave the house or vapid nonsense. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of both KIDS and SHE'S ALL THAT, but I've never connected to either one on a personal level. If there is one, that means there are too many people that can relate to Larry Clark's vision of what it means to be young. And if you were an ugly duckling who was asked to the prom by the most dreamy guy in school on a dare, hat's off to you. That's one ridiculous senior year you had.  HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL uses cancer as a device to elicit sympathy for a kid who is acting... kind of terrible. Like we do when we are teenagers.

That's the thing that really makes the film work. Hope is allowed to be a jerk. A self-involved teenager. In film, there is a tendency to treat disease with reverence. Any character who is stricken with cancer is handled with kids gloves. I get the cautionary approach to the subject matter, but it's not honest. Anyone who has had a loved one go through a medical crisis can attest to how long and complicated the process can be.

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL is in Theatres & available on VOD Today


Popular posts from this blog

The Venture Bros: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart - Review

2023 Director : Jackson Publick Starring : Doc Hammer, James Urbaniak, Michael Sinterniklaas, Chris McCulloch, Clancy Brown, and JK Simmons  The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart is an absolute triumph that brilliantly continues the story of the beloved animated series. As a long-time fan, I couldn't be more thrilled with this new movie, which picks up right where season 7 finale left off. Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has delivered a truly special piece of animation that had me from start to finish. While the plot for the film is about what you'd expect from a direct to home video feature based on an animated series, there is something in the way all the pieces come together that is utterly compelling, making it impossible to look away. The story is well-crafted and the return of an imposing evil from the past adds a layer of depth and intensity that fans will appreciate. The voice talents in The Venture Bros. have always been top-notch, and R

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL Starring Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman - In Theaters, On Digital and On Demand on July 28th, 2023

  Starring : Nicolas Cage, Joel Kinnaman Directed By : Yuval Adler Written By : Luke Paradise After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint, a man finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is at it seems.  ONLY IN THEATERS: July 28, 2023

Official Trailer for V/H/S/85

  Directors: David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Natasha Kermani, Mike Nelson An ominous mixtape blends never before seen snuff footage with nightmarish newscasts and disturbing home video to create a surreal, analog mashup of the forgotten 80s. Premiering On Shudder October 6th