"Over/Under" - Film Review
Over/Under director and co-writer Sophia Silver has created a deeply personal ode to childhood friendships. Based partially on her friendship with co-writer Sianni Rosenstock, the film charts the fierce relationship between friends Violet (Emajean Bullock) and Stella (Anastasia Veronica Lee). They live in Los Angeles and San Diego, but meet in the summertime in Massachusetts. Both of their families take annual vacations to the same beachside town, and they become best friends in the intense way that only kids can.
The film bounces between summers in Massachusetts and the rest of the year in the girls’ respective towns in California. The audience meets Stella and Violet when they’re nine years old, carefree, and making wishes on morning moths. Their biggest worry is whether they can have a sleepover, but they both know there are larger issues in life that are beyond their comprehension. Stella knows her mother isn’t well, but she doesn’t have the vocabulary to fully understand her mother’s cancer.
There isn’t a large central conflict that runs through the film, no cataclysmic event that fractures the relationship between Stella and Violet. It’s far sadder than that. Over/Under is about the devastation of growing up. The way friends naturally drift apart, dealing with puberty, and the way the world irrevocably shifts. Over/Under captures the magnificent magic of summertime and effortlessly blends in the reality of growing up.
Synchronicities
Over/Under is simple in a beautifully intricate way. What’s at stake here is not the safety of the world or some other grand problem. It’s something much more insular. Stella and Violet are coming of age. They’re on the precipice of having to understand a brand new world. And yet, despite being the best of friends, they’re changing and moving toward different paths. Suddenly, their interests are different and things aren’t as simple as they were in the summertimes of their younger years.
The friendship between Stella and Violet is the glue that holds the film together. The performances by Bullock and Lee are so natural that it would be easy to believe they really were plucked off the beach in Massachusetts in the summertime to star in the movie. Their performances are essential to the success of the film, because everyone watching will remember their own formative childhood friendships. Over/Under will make the audience remember the friends whose phone numbers they had memorized, the secrets they shared, and the ones who made summer feel eternal.
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