Sunday, June 26, 2016

Changeover

Teenager Haley Thompson acts awfully bratty after moving in with her tennis pro relative, Uncle Chad, but not without reason. In the back seat of the car when her parents were broadsided and killed by a truck, this heretofore typical seventeen-year-old now suffers the PTSD horror of reliving her parents' intense suffering, and her horror, over and over again.

What's more, she's hurting herself, a habit that could turn deadly soon. Her bachelor uncle, already struggling to raise an eight-year-old son on his own, isn't well equipped to handle the emotions of a troubled girl who constantly lashes out at him for his inadequacies. They both want to connect and heal, but the road to this place is impassable.

Director Estes Tarver, who superbly plays Uncle Chad alongside an explosive performance by actress Madeline Taylor, literally pulls no punches in his portrayal of family life, and does so with a single-parent structure that heightens the agony, vulnerability and social relevance. Changeover is a film puissant, one that pulls the drapes on parent-child issues that are even more tectonic in real life.

You can watch the trailer here: Changeover Trailer