Maddie Ziegler’s “Bloody Hell” SXSW Review: Absolutely brilliant – World Time Todays

A visit to the gynecologist is rarely anyone’s favorite pastime, but Maddie Ziegler has it particularly bad there at Molly McGlynn’s bloody hell. Making its debut at the SXSW Film Festival, the “Dream Ody” stars Ziegler as a 16-year-old Lindy who is determined to lose her virginity to her boyfriend, but whose plans are delayed by an unexpected diagnosis – one that affects her Challenging perceptions of femininity, sexuality and himself. Personal, raw and at times wickedly funny, the film is an excellent showcase for Ziegler, whose natural performance leaves a lasting impression.

There’s a rainy quality in the air bloody hellMcGlynn’s second sequel to her 2017 debut Maria walks around. Lindy recently moved into her grandmother’s old house with her mother Rita – played by a particularly thorny Emily Hampshire, who has been seen before Schott’s Creek. (You can also see Hampshire in another SXSW feature appendage.)

Rita is determined to make the place feel like home and Lindy seems to fit in seamlessly with the school. Soon, she and her new BFF are chatting up Vivian (Djouliet Amara) about the possibility that she might soon be sleeping with her boyfriend Adam (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai).

Things don’t go according to plan. Since she’s never had her period, Lindy has to undergo a routine check-up before a gynecologist can prescribe birth control for her. As she soon learns from an impressively tactless male gynecologist, she has a reproductive condition called MRKH Syndrome. She has no uterus and a shallow vaginal canal, so she cannot carry children, and vaginal sex will be difficult. Her doctor sends her home with a set of dilators for practice.

This news is a lot for Lindy to digest, largely thanks to the awkwardness with which it was delivered. She can’t bring herself to tell Adam or even Vivian. Only her mother knows and their relationship can be volatile. Before long, Lindy, once the star of the track team, storms off the practice field and relinquishes her seat at an upcoming meeting. She tells Adam she needs “time” but doesn’t explain why she has a very specific, nine-month margin of error for how much “time” she’ll need. An icy distance follows, of course.

Lindy’s only calm haven in the storm seems to be another new friend, Jax (Ki Griffin), who is open about both being non-binary and intersex and wishing his parents hadn’t opted for surgery. Through her conversations with Jax and others, Lindy begins to notice all of the outside forces that seem to shape her relationship with her body – including a male-dominated medical facility that can treat bodies that fall outside of a very rigid set of standards and assumptions inherently objectionable.

bloody hell can feel tonally ambiguous at times, but that’s not necessarily a shortcoming. As its “traumatic” reckoning promises, the film walks a fine but walking line between soulful disappointment and laughter. Bitter moments between Lindy and Rita simmer overnight before sweetening with a breakfast tray in the morning. Like most teenagers, this film explodes in the full range of human emotions, and sometimes multiple at once.

Ziegler is an impressive screen presence, and she brings a quiet charisma as Lindy – an effortless athlete who suddenly struggles in ways she never could have predicted. As Lindy’s self-image deteriorates, Ziegler makes her distress understandable and empathetic. She really shines in the final act, however, when Lindy begins to regain her self-esteem. And while Ziegler and Hampshire never quite make a believable mother-daughter couple, Hampshire lends Rita’s anger a certain humanity that might have felt alien and two-dimensional in the hands of another performer. (At this point the Schott’s Creek Alum has perfected this kind of sour sweetness.)

Woon-A-Tai plays a solid teenage heartthrob as Adam, enough that you almost wish he had a little more to do. Amara and Griffin feel similarly underwhelmed. If bloody hell While not overwhelming in any way, Lindy’s excellent and sensitive development can sometimes come at the expense of other characters. Many of Lindy’s relationships with other people have fascinating parallels to her relationship with her own body, but at times the relationships themselves can feel a little half-baked, with some hurts seemingly too easily forgiven.

At the same time these Is Lindy’s story and her inner emotional transformations are visible throughout and graceful in her execution. Given the many male specialists Lindy meets, what stands out are the interactions she has with women—like the one she encourages from an early age to approach her situation as an athlete. Just like on the racetrack, this requires endurance; The vagina, like everything else, is a muscle, the doctor says — so stretch it.

bloody hellwith its blatant, on-screen Ginger Snaps Reference, understands clearly how menstruation and its attendant parts have been connected to the spiritual and supernatural; its cool, bluish atmosphere can be almost felt at times dusk-adjacent.

Although the film is clearly a comedy, viewers could sometimes be forgiven for wondering if it will lapse into the world of horror. (Everyone else remembers the movie Teeth?) Over time, Lindy’s conversations with others who can relate, at least in part, to her experiences—the doctors, Jax, and her mother—rebuild her confidence. Being a teenager might be hell, but this defiant teen comedy is fucking awesome.

Do you like this review? Sign up to receive our weekly See Skip newsletter every Tuesday and find out which new series and films are worth watching and which are not.