Review: Sadie

Directed by: Megan Griffiths

Written by: Megan Griffiths

Starring: Sophia Mitri Schloss, Melanie Lynskey, Danielle Brooks, Tony Hale, John Gallagher Jr.

Rating: [4/5]

Understanding the decisions of parents can be far too complex for children to comprehend because of their limited view of the world and life experience. It still does not make something seemingly simple but in all reality incredibly complex something easy to digest. Sadie displays how this appears for a particular child as she cannot comprehend what everyone does around her thus trying to make sense of it all for herself. 

Living with her mother but wishing it could be in addition to her father, Sadie (Sophia Mitri Schloss) struggles with the reality of her circumstances. Having issues at school as well, everything here compounds making her take drastic action. 

The life Sadie operates as a young teen resembles one many can relate to, especially with a fractured household causing further distress. A girl who just wants her father in her life but cannot for reasons not made immediately clear that stop her from spending all of the time she would like with him. This frames her mother Rae (Melaine Lynskey) as the negative factor in Sadie’s life as opposed to the absentee father. You can imagine single mothers cringing along with any disparaging things Sadie states about her mother about how easy parenting can be for the other half not always present. 

Being absent for major stretches of time allows Sadie to build up her father to be this ideal of a fantastic person rather than for the reality of why Rae would want to limit the amount of time they would spend together. Through the use of letters, Sadie’s father leaves a better impression somehow than her mother who cares for her on a daily basis. Something completely unfair but we receive this story through the perspective of Sadie and how she sees the world as a young teenager. Having the same mindset when watching the film, helps get right in line with what this feature seeks to accomplish through its narrative and just how desperate Sadie feels in certain moments. 

This only gets worse when Rae rightfully tries to move on and begin a relationship with another man named Cyrus (John Gallagher Jr.). With Sadie’s intent on ensuring the original family unit remains the same, Cyrus thus becomes public enemy number one. When this aspect of the plot kicks off, you feel the tone of the feature differs when compared to other movies. A slew of them exist where a child does not care for their parent to even hint at the integration of a potential new step-parent and their machinations to end the possibility of it makes for some good comedy. Sadie takes a drastically different approach in crafting something more concerning and how she refuses to let another man into her life. 

Even when she can act like a child in moments it helps to remember she’s actually one, which makes the events occurring in this feature quite concerning. Through the difficulty, finding it within yourself to care for Sadie comes as no problem because of the performance by Sophia Mitri Schloss. Portraying this teenager, she takes us right into the drama of her life and how everything here negatively impacts her. In her first role, she crafts something where you can certainly understand her plight but not agree with how she manages to carry it all out. Her collaboration with Melanie Lynskey certainly assists in creating this mother-daughter dynamic filled with plenty of tension throughout. Lynskey does well in her portrayal of a mother feeling both guilt in wanting to move on but also protective in her position of creating the best life for herself and her child. At times it involves some selfishness on her part to prioritize her happiness as well as her daughter’s creating such a conflicting emotional time for her. 

Delivering yet another thought-provoking and impactful feature, Megan Griffiths adds another win to a filmography with strong work. She knows how to navigate difficult situations and in this feature, she moves deep into the familial unit and how it can hamper the individual pursuits of the individuals within them. This feature presents the inherent conflicts where you have different individuals pulling in their own directions for what they want but still needing to use the same anchor. She handles the balance of this all very well unsurprisingly and remains one of the more underappreciated filmmakers out there delivering strong work time and time again. 

Devastating in moments but also relatable, Sadie walks a fairly difficult line in the subject material it covers but seeing it all through the eyes of a child and how it makes her feel brings it all back down to Earth. We get a breakthrough performance by the young Sophia Mitri Schloss and helped along by a strong supporting cast including Melanie Lynskey, John Gallagher Jr., Danielle Brooks, and Tony Hale. Impressive work overall leaving you shocked by the end in a positive way.