Addison Timlin as the rebellious girl who later becomes a nun.
The word logic is not used enough when talking about movies. When we talk about a film not making sense or not being believable, it is usually because it isn’t logical. Logic is what saves the quietly vibrant new film Little Sister, showing Oct. 26 at MMoCA, from becoming yet another bland, quirky indie dramedy.
On paper, Sister sounds bland and quirky: Colleen (Addison Timlin) and Jacob Lunsford (Keith Poulson) were goth kids, but now he’s a soldier and she’s a nun who wears hip sunglasses. Their crazy mom (Ally Sheedy) calls Sister Colleen back home after years of absence to help deal with Jacob, who has returned home injured from the war. And it’s Halloween! Can the nun’s faith keep her strong enough for her family?
In a lesser movie, these characters would be mere devices, but director Zach Clark (who also wrote and edited) takes these people seriously. They are built on subtle choices and history: Colleen and Jacob’s mother is unstable and unreliable, so the siblings rebelled, choosing a form of rebellion (goth punk) with a strict set of stylistic guidelines (costumes, music, decor) that gave them the order they craved. It makes sense that when they grew up they chose lives with structure — in the church and the military.
Even things that should be garish make sense: The nun sits in her former bedroom, where the walls are painted blood red and coated with Satanic images. It could have been a cheap gimmick, but we understand that she still finds peace in her youthful fortress of solitude. Her only correction to the room is turning her inverted cross right-side up. And it makes sense that her mother — who exudes more resentment than love — never redecorated the room, hoping her prodigal child would return.
Faith, duty, patriotism, family, vegetarianism, activism, infidelity, recreational marijuana and the goth lifestyle are all treated with respectful humor by Clark and his cast. Timlin brings a mature dignity and youthful confusion to Colleen, while Poulson projects crumpled pride as he constantly gets the backhanded salute from people who call him a hero of a needless war.
Most effective is Sheedy as the sad and scary mother. It is jarring to see the iconic messed-up teen from the’80s playing the next generation’s messed-up mother. But, the more you think about it, it’s only logical.
