Elle
2020 · 21m · United States
Directed by Nicole Vanden Broeck
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Nostalgia for an uncomplicated bygone era frames this drama of a young woman's feelings toward her best friend who is about to move away.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The nostalgic frame is a bit expected—queer coming-of-age melancholia, we've seen it—but I'd need to watch to know if Vanden Broeck's doing something genuinely weird with that longing or just riding its natural pathos.
A formally considered approach to the liminal space between girlhood and loss; the tender register suggests restraint and syntax that likely rewards close viewing, the kind of tonal discipline that reads as deliberate rather than default.
What matters here is whether Vanden Broeck finds the precise gesture or edit that transforms 'best friend leaving' from familiar into necessary—the one technical or performative choice that justifies the 21 minutes and makes the nostalgia frame feel earned rather than built-in.
Reviews
The complexity and depth of teenage friendship is so often misunderstood and yet so sensitive, that the care with which it has been explored in the film's narrative will resonate with many, and with force. Brilliantly enacted by Sawyer, Elle becomes an open book right before our eyes.