San Francisco International Film Festival 20 April - 04 May 2006

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Sherry, a hip but impressionable Londoner, joins a roving cult of homeless youth called SPARK—Street People Armed with Radical Knowledge—in celebrated short filmmaker Alison Murray’s first feature. With SPARK, Sherry parties across Europe, until they eventually take over a disused vineyard in Portugal. Soon Sherry’s mother comes looking for her, but enamored with SPARK’s dropout mentality, Mom decides to remain. The group becomes a surrogate family to Sherry, serving as background for Murray’s exploration of familial power struggles, reminiscent of the percolating tensions in films by Mouth to Mouth’s executive producer Atom Egoyan. The subject matter is perfect for showcasing Murray’s cultivated strengths as a director. As in her short films, which explore contemporary youth and street culture, focusing especially on the dynamics of dance as expression, Murray introduces a choreographic logic that will carry the film’s story. The film opens with Sherry, played with amazing acumen by Ellen Page (whose forthcoming turn in Hard Candy has been hailed as career-making), running/dancing down the road. And throughout, special attention is paid to the blocking of her ensemble cast, which at moments will break into subtle modern dance movement. The approach pays off when typically mundane moments—a handshake, a hug —are transformed into aching scenes of human contact. Above all, Murray’s direction indicates nimble control over all aspects of the film’s production—Murray’s intention is ever-present and her style becomes a prime element of the film’s meaning. Mouth to Mouth serves as the discovery of an auteur.

—Sean Uyehara

Copyright © 2006 San Francisco Film Society