Princess Cyd is another quiet surprise, a film with
a very specific scope whose main concern is its characters and the relationships
between these characters. Movie-wise, the stakes are small, but feel real, and
the two leads play the often understated, quiet scenes perfectly. They are
contrasting characters, and at first it might seem like they each fit two very
different character “types,” but as the film goes on, we see their complexity
and the ways they vary from the conventions of these types. The film attempts
naturalism, and succeeds, I think, because it still feels like a film, which
for me is an essential balance.
Jessie Pinnick plays
Cyd, a sixteen-year old spending the summer in Chicago with her aunt, Miranda
Ruth, a well-known novelist. The two haven’t seen each other in years, and the film
doesn’t feel obligated to explain why that is, although it likely has something
to do with the circumstances surrounding the death of Cyd’s mother (Miranda’s
sister). The burgeoning relationship between aunt and niece feels authentic,
and the film wouldn’t work if it didn’t. A lesser film might go for histrionics
between the two characters, but the script here has the characters slowly,
quietly get to know each other, as each brings out as yet unseen traits in the
other. It’s almost as if we see both Cyd and Miranda tweak their own character
in order to better appeal to, and eventually understand, one another. The other
central relationship of the film is between Cyd and Katie, and the film handles
this story of sexual awakening in the same quiet, gradual way it handles the
familial relationship. For me, this also makes for a much more authentic portrayal;
it feels closer to how these things exist in the real world than it does to how
they might typically exist in the world of film or fiction. Princess Cyd was a moving experience for
me: a delicate, beautiful film about the desire and ability to understand and
appreciate one another.
4/4
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