Kid-Thing
Director: David Zellner
Writer: David Zellner
Cast: Sydney Aguirre, Nathan Zellner, Susan Tyrrell
Part of: Real America

Plot:
Annie (Sydney Aguirre) spends most of her time on her own with her BMX bike, exploring the world around her; whether that is the attic, the playground where she gets into scrapes with other kids or the convience store where she steals. While out exploring in the woods, Annie stumbles upon an old well from which a voice (Susan Tyrrell) calls out for help. Annie is unsure how to deal with that situation and runs at first, but she’s also drawn back to the well.

Kid-Thing is an engaging, slightly weird, not very easy film that works better than I thought it would. Mostly that’s due to Sydney Aguirre, who is all kinds of amazing.

I don’t think that this film could have worked with an actress only slightly less talented than Sydney Aguirre. She carries this movie with apparent ease. So much so that the appearance of the other characters, especially Marvin (Nathan Zellner) and Caleb (David Zellner), feels like an intrusion and you just want the film to get back to Annie and her lonely explorations.

I did enjoy her interaction with Esther, the woman in the well, though and it could have been expanded a little bit. But I loved how they handled Annie’s reaction to Esther – her deep distrust of the situation in general and Esther in particular (maybe Esther really is the devil? Maybe she is in that well for a reason?), but also the connection with another human being, somebody who depends on her and therefore kind of belongs to her, which is the ultimate drug for a kid like Annie who doesn’t have anything or anyone really.

The shots are long and the pace is slow, leaving Annie enough room to discover and explore and taking the audience along into Annie’s world. And it’s a world full of cruelty, in which Annie finds herself unable to get in touch with anyone unless it’s with a good amount of hostility and aggression.

That certainly isn’t the nicest place to be and makes the film a little difficult and certainly not for everyone. But I did enjoy it and Annie.

Summarising: If you don’t need your movies to be all happy and like them a little difficult, go for it.