Kelly & Cal

Juliette Lewis returns to centre stage with a charming performance as a bored housewife who finds she has much in common with her much younger neighbour.

• Director Jen McGowan
• Producers Mandy Tagger-Brocky, Adi Ezroni
• Screenwriter Amy Lowe Starbin
• With Juliette Lewis, Jonny Weston, Josh Hopkins, Cybil Shepherd
• USA 2013
• 110 mins
• Sales Electric Entertainment

Juliette Lewis shines in her first lead role for some time in this warmly observed story of two social outcasts bonding in a friendship that becomes a little too close for comfort. Kelly (Lewis) is a former Riot Grrrl turned new mother who struggles to connect with her baby, loses touch with her husband and finds herself bewildered and lost in a stifling well-to-do suburbia. Enter mischevious neighbour Cal (Jonny Weston), full of confidence and teenage gusto but struggling to come to terms with life in a wheelchair following a recent accident. The unlikely pair’s relationship crackles with a dangerous energy as they navigate their past and try to locate themselves in the present. Skilfully balancing comedy and drama, Kelly & Cal is an assured, enjoyable and rewarding feature debut from director Jen McGowan and writer Amy Lowe Starbin.

Stuart Brown