TIFF 2024 Review: Sweet Angel Baby – “the overriding message is still triumphant.”

Courtesy of TIFF

When you’re a little bit ‘different’ from the rest, you might be apt to hide parts of yourself.  This is even more true if you live in a small town where anonymity doesn’t exist.  Such is the case for Eliza (Michaela Kurimsky) who has lived all her life in the small coastal town of Rawlin’s Cove. It’s a close-knit place, the kind where she delivers wood to her elderly neighbour and can walk to her mother’s house.  She also walks to church where the entire town meets every Sunday. It’s the heart of their community.  

When the priest unexpectedly announces that the church is being sold, the parishioners are stunned and heartbroken.  But, that evening at a dinner with her family, she has an idea for the town to buy the church back.  A committee is made and plans for fundraising begin.  All of this just helps to solidify Eliza’s place in the town, where she is loved and respected, where she seemingly belongs.

What the town doesn’t know, at least not yet, is that Eliza has a secret.  In her spare time, she often takes provocative, yet artistic, photos.  Like when she dons a balaclava and takes a photo cleaving a fresh loaf of bread with a hatchet wearing a bikini in the woods.  Or when she spreads jam over her naked torso, lying on a rock.  She posts these photos to a social media account called lil_wildling, which has over 300,000 followers.  

As you can imagine, this doesn’t stay secret forever. A man in town, Shawn (Peter Mooney) discovers the account and recognizes Eliza, figuring it’s an invitation to take advantage of her.  The news of her ‘transgressions’ spreads like wildfire, and even threatens her friendship (or the potential for more than that) with Toni (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), the only person in town who is not originally from there, and the only person who is Indigenous and has come out as queer.  The two, now both outsiders, must figure out how to navigate life where everybody knows your name and your identity is not only who you are, but the actions you take.  

Writer-director Melanie Oates creates Sweet Angel Baby, her second feature film.  Also having grown up in a small town in Newfoundland, Oates had an experience where a story she wrote struck a nerve with those in her hometown, making her feel unease whenever she tried to go back.  This personal story gave birth to Eliza and her journey, and the insights of the script are from someone who has lived under the watchful eyes of her neighbours.  Eliza is very alone in a town that is already isolated.  To have wants, desires and creative outlets that are seen as outside of the ‘norm’ only magnifies that feeling.  As Oates captures the Atlantic crashing along the rocks of the Newfoundland coast (with cinematography from Christopher Mabley), you can feel the idea that there is really nowhere to run from the consequences of your actions.

There are a lot of complexities to this film, and some are delved into a little deeper than others.  There are so many stories that could be told here, that can’t fit into 96 minutes of slow-burn.  For such a small town, you could find a lot to write about.  There’s Eliza’s role in the church and what it means with respect to her hesitation in pursuing a relationship with Toni.  There’s also Toni’s understandable reluctance to have anything really to do with the church.  There is misogyny involved in Shawn’s treatment of Eliza, his threat of exposing her photos a violent blackmail.  There are ideas of identity and consequence, double standards and sexuality and how conformity, especially in a small town, is expected.

Yet for the all the trauma Oates herself suffered being the target of her own small-town rage, the overriding message of Sweet Angel Baby is still triumphant.  Kurimsky throws her all into this character and as Eliza is standing proud at the end, able to finally be herself, the film truly highlights the strength one can have when they are released from repression.  There’s a lot to be frustrated and angry about in this film, as the townspeople turn on someone they previously claimed to love, as they spread rumours and close doors previously open to Eliza.  But, there are still moments of tenderness, and understanding.  If all of what Eliza goes through seems grim and somewhat melancholic, Oates does make it clear there are allies everywhere, even in unexpected places.

Sweet Angel Baby had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival September 9, 2024.  For more information head to tiff.net