There’s an astonishing naturalism about the two leads, navigating the ups and downs of adolescence, bodily changes and learning to use tampons
Practically any woman who had a best female friend in early adolescence will be able to relate to this fragile, thoughtful drama about two American children, Violet (Emajean Bullock) and Stella (Anastasia Veronica Lee), living through the ages of nine to 13, a time as packed with incident as it is simultaneously uneventful and reassuringly dull. Unlike Richard Linklater’s justly acclaimed Boyhood, which had the resources to film for over a decade and thus observe its central character grow up, this was clearly made over a more compact schedule. Violet and Stella age much more subtly here, gradually growing breasts and getting a little bit taller, but those tiny incremental changes mean so much to them. Just as in real life with girls this age, a little bit of makeup, different clothes and some flat-ironing on the hair can alter a kid’s whole presentation.
As the film starts, the two are nine-year-old besties, spending their summers together in New England where they go to camp, frolic in the surf (the title refers to a game they play with waves) and try to sleep over at each other’s houses. Unfortunately, Stella can’t yet cope with sleeping through the night at someone else’s place, and every time they try she must be collected by her parents after waking up frightened in the night. But it’s still something the girls yearn for. They even wish for it when they trap morning moths in jars, hoping fairies will grant them their hearts’ desires.
But when both girls go home at the end of the summer, Violet to Los Angeles and Stella to San Diego, life is not so dreamy and blissful. Violet is bullied at school by a hateful little poppet and her friends who make fun of her birthmark and fantastic head of wavy, naturally crimped hair. Plus, it looks like her parents’ marriage is on the rocks. Stella has a more stable home life at first glance, but she too has worries, especially around the survival of her mother (Madeline Wise) who copes throughout with breast cancer, while her father (Adam David Thompson) is contending with an offscreen mother with dementia.
These sidelong glimpses into the travails of adulthood don’t make the youngsters any less curious about their own bodily changes. They scrutinise every underarm hair on each another, and try to work out how you’re supposed to put in tampons – a life event nearly every woman goes through but which I don’t think I’ve seen depicted in a film before. When they have a chance, they hide in the dunes and study adult bodies at the nudist beach with fascination/repulsion. In the hands of a different director this all might have come across as twee or even icky, but here the actors’ astonishing naturalism and ease in front of the camera make this an exemplary coming of age story from Sophia Silver, dramatic enough to hold interest but never veering into melodrama or patronising didacticism.
Over/Under is on digital platforms from 24 August