Anyone feeling stuck in a rut will appreciate “Saint Frances,” Alex Thompson’s sensitive feature debut, which earned both the Audience and Grand Jury awards at SXSW last year. Though he focuses on one small season of one woman’s life, the details don’t go unnoticed.
Bridget (Kelly O’Sullivan, “Sirens”) is used to the patronizing pity in people’s eyes when she admits she dropped out of Northwestern after a year. When she tells them she’s 34, single, and works in a diner. When she stands in awkward silence, after someone pushes her to admit what she really wants with her life.
If she knew, maybe she’d be doing it already. Or maybe not. But either way, the issue isn’t that her meandering path is making others unhappy. After all, none of the married, professional, parenting people she knows seem especially content.
Certainly not Annie (Lily Mojekwu) and Maya (Charin Alvarez), a Catholic, multiracial lesbian couple who hire Bridget as their nanny. Their brilliant six-year-old daughter, Frances (Ramona Edith Williams), is trying to make sense of all the chaos around her: a new baby brother, parents who fight more often, and this strange woman who is suddenly taking her to school and the park all the time.
O’Sullivan, who wrote the script, works hard to stay focused within her micro-universe. Sometimes this means the pacing is slow and the suburban-Chicago imagery feels deceptively ordinary. But the memorably empathetic depictions of everyday joys and pain are most often found in the connections between people. So a generic kitchen becomes a crucial meeting place, and a noisy playground suddenly turns into a battleground. That Bridget is lost is never in doubt; that her guideposts are the other women in her life becomes increasingly clear with each misstep and stumbling recovery.
The filmmakers also do a nice job depicting the very millennial relationship between Bridget and Jace (Max Lipchitz), a laid-back beta-dude in his mid-20s. He suits her because they’re on the same track, despite the fact that she’s nearly a decade older. But while a lazier script or actor might leave it at that, Lipchitz gets the chance to push Jace into unexpected places.
This is clear right away, when a post-party hookup turns graphically intimate in a way rarely seen onscreen. It’s not much of a spoiler to add that Bridget soon discovers she’s pregnant, since the decision she has to make impacts her throughout the movie. What’s more surprising, and gratifying, is the determinedly practical approach to such a controversial subject. We’ve seen lots of movies in which heroines grapple at great length with abortion emotionally, but very few in which they’re allowed to approach it on their own terms with absolutely no judgment.
One of those, of course, was 2014’s beloved dramedy “Obvious Child,” which does cast a long shadow even six years later. “Saint Frances” brings to mind plenty of other festival favorites as well, given that indies about a delayed coming-of-age are hardly uncommon. But if this movie doesn’t stand out for visual or thematic originality, it does make its own quiet case through consistently empathetic self-assurance. Bridget’s approach to an unplanned pregnancy is part of her story, but it doesn’t define her, and it’s to the filmmakers’ credit that they do everything they can to expand our heavily-reinforced cultural assumptions.
Indeed, the movie’s most notable asset is the way it resists sketching any of its main characters with a single, easy-to-grasp definition. This does make the exceptions stand out, like the designated villains who feel particularly cartoonish as they berate Maya for breastfeeding in public or belittle Bridget for taking care of other people’s children.
But every one of the little-known leads is ideally cast, and fully committed. O’Sullivan cuts Bridget’s relatable vulnerability with a realistically selfish edge, Lipchitz upends their seemingly unbalanced relationship, and Alvarez deserves a raft of offers based on her moving portrayal of a silently overwhelmed mother.
The acknowledged star, however, is Williams. A 6-year-old figure skater and pageant winner, she is the essence of wide-eyed precocity and given plenty of room to prove it. It’s hard to know yet whether she has an unusually natural and charismatic onscreen presence or a rare talent. But she is an undeniable charmer, even when required to solemnly deliver such adult-written lines as “Every woman’s body is different.”
Then again, she’s not wrong. So, too, is every woman’s experience. And “Saint Frances” never forgets it.
Sundance Portraits From A to Z: Andy Samberg to Zazie Beetz (Exclusive Photos)
Glenn Close, "Four Good Days"
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Mila Kunis, "Four Good Days"
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Writer-director Rodrigo Garcia, "Four Good Days"
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Actress Toni Collette, "Dream Horse"
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Director Euros Lyn, "Dream Horse"
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Sienna Miller, "Wander Darkly"
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Diego Luna, "Wander Darkly"
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Director Ron Howard, "Rebuilding Paradise"
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Alison Brie, "Horse Girl"
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Jeff Baena, "Horse Girl"
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Steven Yeun, "Minari"
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Yuh-Jung Youn, "Minari"
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Yeri Han, "Minari"
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Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung, "Minari"
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Kelly Rowland, "Bad Hair"
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Ashley Blaine Featherson, "Bad Hair"
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James Van Der Beek, "Bad Hair"
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Yaani King Mondschein, "Bad Hair"
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Elle Lorraine, "Bad Hair"
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Director Justin Simien, "Bad Hair"
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Subject (and former fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi) Hatice Cengiz, "The Dissident"
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Director Bryan Fogel, "The Dissident"
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Andy Samberg, "Palm Springs"
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Cristin Milioti, "Palm Springs"
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Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, "Palm Springs"
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Writer Andy Siara, "Palm Springs"
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Joe Keery, "Spree"
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John DeLuca, "Spree"
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David Arquette, Sasheer Zamata, director Eugene Kotlyarenko, John DeLuca, and Joe Keery, " Spree"
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Peter Macdissi, Paul Bettany, director Alan Ball and Sophia Lillis, "Uncle Frank"
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Writer-director Alan Ball, "Uncle Frank"
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Actor Paul Bettany, "Uncle Frank"
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Actress Sophia Lillis, "Uncle Frank"
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Actor Peter Macdissi, "Uncle Frank"
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Rachel Brosnahan, "Ironbark"
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Director Dominic Cooke, actors Rachel Brosnahan and Merab Ninidze, "Ironbark"
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Wilmer Valderrama, "Blast Beat"
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Diane Guerrero, "Blast Beat"
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Actor Moises Arias, "Blast Beat"
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Actress Kali Uchis, "Blast Beat"
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Daniel Dae Kim, "Blast Beat"
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Actor Mateo Arias, "Blast Beat"
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Esteban Arango, "Blast Beat"
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ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt, "The Fight"
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ACLU lawyer Brigitte Amiri, "The Fight"
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Producers Kerry Washington and Eli Despres, filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, and lawyers Lee Gelernt and Brigitte Amiri, "The Fight"
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Winston Duke, "Nine Days"
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Bill Skarsgård, "Nine Days"
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Zazie Beetz, "Nine Days"
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Benedict Wong, "Nine Days"
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Arianna Ortiz, "Nine Days"
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David Rysdahl, "Nine Days"
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Writer-director Edson Oda, "Nine days"
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Sil Lai Abrams, Drew Dixon, and Sherri Hines, "On the Record"
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Gloria Steinem, "The Glorias"
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Director Julie Taymor, "The Glorias"
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Actor Harvey Guillén, "What We Do in the Shadows"
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Christopher Abbott, "Possessor"
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Brandon Cronenberg, "Possessor"
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Agnes Gund, "Aggie"
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Director Catherine Gund, "Aggie"
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Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, "Farewell Amor"
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Zainab Jah, "Farewell Amor"
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Jayme Lawson, "Farewell Amor"
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Musicians Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, Gina Schock, TheWrap's Steve Pond, Belinda Carlisle and Kathy Valentine, "The Go Go's"
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The Go Go's and director Alison Ellwood
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Actor John Reynolds, "Save Yourselves"
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Actor Sunita Mani, "Save Yourselves"
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Directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, "Save Yourselves"
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Alec Baldwin, "Beast Beast"
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Jose Angeles, Will Madden, and Shirley Chen, "Beast Beast"
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Director Bao Nguyen, "Be Water"
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Producer Julie Nottingham, "Be Water"
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Director Lana Wilson, "Taylor Swift: Miss Americana"
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Producers Christine O'Malley, Morgan Neville and Caitrin Rogers, "Taylor Swift: Miss Americana"
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Producer Jessica Hargrave and director-producer Ryan White, "Assassins"
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Actress Carey Mulligan and writer-director Emerald Fennell, "Promising Young Woman"
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Director Maïmouna Doucouré and producer Zangro, "Cuties"
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Charlie Shotwell, Jude Law, and Oona Roche, "The Nest"
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Actress Devin France, "Wendy"
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Elisabeth Moss, "Shirley"
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Michael Stuhlbarg, "Shirley"
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Director Josephine Decker, "Shirley"
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Actor Logan Lerman, "Shirley"
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Writer-Executive Producer Brian Lazarte, "McMillions"
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Writer-Director James Lee Hernandez, "McMillions"
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Julia Garner, "The Assistant"
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Kitty Green, "The Assistant"
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Marquise Vilson, director Sam Feder and Amy Scholder, "Disclosure"
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Zeke Smith, Zackary Drucker and Jen Richards, "Disclosure"
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Rebecca Hall, "The Night House"
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Director David Bruckner, "The Night House"
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Stacy Martin, "The Night House"
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Jahi Di'Allo Winston, Angel Manuel Soto, Caleeb Pinkett, Sherman Payne, and Will Catlett, "Charm City Kings"
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Actor Wagner Moura, "Sergio"
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Brent Travers and Daniel Marc Dreifuss, "Sergio"
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Director Greg Barker, "Sergio"
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Annie Clark and Carrie Brownstein, "The Nowhere Inn"
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Actor Pilou Asbæk, "Run Sweetheart Run"
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Ella Balinska, "Run Sweetheart Run"
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Pilou Asbæk, director Shana Feste and Ella Balinska, "Run Sweetheart Run"
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Emily Mortimer, "Relic"
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Director Patricia Vidal Delgado, "La Leyenda Negra"
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Actress Monica Betancourt, "La Leyenda Negra"
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Actor-writer-director Viggo Mortensen, "Falling"
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Lance Henriksen, "Falling"
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Laurent Bouzereau and Natasha Gregson Wagner, "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"
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Producer Stacey Reiss, "Spaceship Earth"
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Producer Mark Nelson, "Spaceship Earth"
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Director Matt Wolf, "Spaceship Earth"
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Subject Linda Leigh, "Spaceship Earth"
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Director Marina Zenovich, "Lance"
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Andrea Riseborough, "Possessor" and Luxor"
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Karim Saleh, "Luxor"
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Director Brenda Chapman, "Come Away"
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Aubrey Plaza, "Black Bear"
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Sundance 2020: Stars like Glenn Close, Kerry Washington and Bill Skarsgard stop by TheWrap Studio presented by Heineken at the Pando Art Gallery