From Omeleto.
A teenager struggles with an alcoholic mother.
GOBSTOPPER is used with permission from Jo Lane. Learn more at https://instagram.com/jolane_me.
Ash is a teenage girl who lives in Manchester with her mom and little sister, Charlie, in a rundown flat. Ash is a typical teen in some ways. But when it comes to her family life, she struggles with an alcoholic mother and is the main caretaker for her young sibling.
On a seemingly typical day, they scam for money, dodge the probation officer checking up on her mother and avoid both their erratic mother and the rowdy group of teen boys on the street. But when their misadventures hit a dangerous point, Ash realizes how enduring and complicated a mother’s love can be.
Directed and written by Jo Lane, this absorbing short drama takes an observational and naturalistic approach to a struggling but scrappy family unit affected by economic deprivation and alcoholism. A sharp-eyed, unsentimental snapshot of familial love in even the bleakest of circumstances, its focal point is the resourceful, tough teenage girl holding it together with equal parts fierce devotion and no-nonsense resourcefulness. But it also reminds us that she’s still a young daughter in need of love and protection of her own.
The subject matter has the potential to be heartbreaking and downbeat, but the storytelling finds a remarkable balance in portraying both the unsentimental reality of living with an alcoholic parent and the lightness and levity of being young. Told mostly in a naturalistic way, the storytelling’s rhythms hop and skip from incident to incident as Ash and her sister try to provide for themselves, and there are touches of cheeky humor, visual brightness and a tiny hint of teenage romance that feel authentic to the milieu and characters. The ways that Ash and her sister scrap and scrabble can feel like an adventure, and amid the almost documentary-like look and feel of the film, flourishes of whimsicality in the music and rhythm capture those fleeting, even idyllic feelings of being young and free.
Those feelings are few and far between, however. Actor Eve Darby turns in a remarkable, lived-in performance as Ash, conveying both Ash’s core of strength and conviction while also layering in exasperation and subtle resentment at being put into a parental role. She carries the narrative, precise and subtle in the character’s emotional ebbs and flows. Though she’s self-reliant and conscientious of how her younger sister needs care, Ash shouldn’t have to take on that parental role. Though she’s able to hold her own, even her capabilities have their limits, especially when faced with vulnerable situations of her own.
But then Ash discovers that she’s not fully on her own yet — and discovers that, despite her mother’s failings, there is still a core of love that can emerge when it’s most needed. It doesn’t excuse her mother and there’s no magically happy ending for these characters — GOBSTOPPER is too smart of a film to pretend that Ash’s problems are all solved with a neat ending. But it leaves viewers with a poignant, almost wistful reminder that even in the most challenged of families, there is still love, and that’s often what keeps us going, despite the flaws, foibles and faults. And with that love, we might just pull through eventually.
