Myrtle
2021 · 16m · UK
Directed by Patricia McCormack
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A trailer-park mother from Indiana cooks a last meal of meatballs and lemon pie for her son awaiting execution on death row, her composure slowly unraveling as she reveals a lifetime of complicated feelings about family, faith, and the justice system.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
One-woman death-row mother makes meatballs while monologuing — capital punishment cooking show, basically. Either devastating or unwatchably theatrical; the page summary suggests the latter.
A solo performance in a prison kitchen, cooking a last meal — the staging is austere in the Dead Man Walking tradition and the writer-performer-director triple duty by McCormack suggests a singular vision. Quietly ambitious.
A one-woman performance set entirely in a prison kitchen, fourteen minutes of cooking as the action — that's the kind of single-location single-actor framework that puts everything on Patricia McCormack's hands and face. The '21 grams' line in the Klipist copy suggests the script trusts its own restraint.
Reviews
McCormack gives a powerful performance as a mother fighting between remaining stoic for the sake of the last meal and the natural urge to tap into her feelings.
Absolutely riveting, with writer Megan Barker mixing plenty of sage social commentary into Myrtle's recipe for meatballs.
Festivals
- Rochester International Film Festival 2021, Shoestring Trophy
- WILDsound Film Festival 2021, Best Performances
- Hobnobben Film Festival 2021
- Beloit International Film Festival