Review of Tallulah (2016) by Spangle — 28 Aug 2016

Ellen Page stars as Tallulah who is entirely grating and hard to watch due to her impulsiveness, rebelliousness, and frequent poor decisions. For the first hour, Tallulah is really hard to stomach as you watch Tallulah makes abhorrent life decisions that have profound negative impacts on those around her.

That said, after an hour, the film does find its stride pretty solidly. Though highly derivative, the film has a nice take on aging, beauty, and motherhood. For many, Tallulah will be truly profound. While I liked what it was trying to communicate, it felt like the film was pushing too hard and trying to force its thematic elements through to their conclusion (particularly through dream sequences and the ending).

If the film had stuck in reality, it would have been better communicated, but as it stood, Tallulah was practically beating you over the head and asking, "DO YOU GET IT YET?". Overall, Tallulah is a nice little film with good performances from Ellen Page and Allison Janney that could have been better if it had been more subtle and less in your face.