filmmaking, but we've seen a number of surprisingly emotionally sophisticated films made by very young people in the past five or 10 years. Movies made about young people, dealing with problems young people experience, but made with an emotional maturity far beyond what many of us expect such young filmmakers to produce.
If That Mockingbird Don't Sing was written and directed by then-19-year-old Sadie Bones, with a complexity and comedic restraint that’s kind of astonishing. I learn Bones is the daughter of the actor Kevin Corrigan, and so I can assume she was able to surround herself with talented people. But also, she did the work, and it's pretty darned good.
The movie's about 17-year-old Sydnie, who realizes she's pregnant after her boyfriend dumps her on the way out the door to college, at which point she decides if she keeps the baby, maybe he'll get back together with her and they can live happily ever after. Her parents are supportive of her but also generally exasperated, and her boyfriend does, indeed, come back, though hardly by choice. But while Sydnie mostly does act like a girl her age would act, the movie doesn't operate with the same level of maturity— Bones is much more nuanced about her characters' feelings and behavior. And the insights they express—and that, of course, she wrote—are occasionally things you don't think people learn until they're quite a few decades into life.
More than that, though, is that comedic restraint I mentioned. The humor in the movie is often laugh-out-loud funny, but it's rarely yelling that humor at you. The characters toss off lines and surprise you with what they say, and while plenty of credit is due to the wonderful cast, with David Krumholtz particularly on his game here, Bones doesn't shove what they're doing in your face. It's an impressive thing just to let the movie come to you when you're a young director, but Sadie Bones shows she’s got the ability.
If That Mockingbird Don’t Sing is available on VOD.
