Sophie Jones

The Deauville American Film Festival each year allows us to discover interesting first films on various themes. In the case of this film directed and written by Jessie Barr, the portrait of a young teenage girl Sophie Jones (Jessie Barr, the director's cousin) who has just lost her mother is at the center of the story. She finds solace in the arms of two boys she lives with. This vision of unvarnished adolescence gives Sophie Jones a special appeal and allows her director to offer an interesting first film that does not necessarily seek to please at all costs but to remain constantly accurate. The mourning, the search for femininity and the age of adolescence find here, through an unsprung director, food for thought.

Independent cinema, as this film shows so well, doesn't need important financial means but above all an interesting script, an inspired and perfectly directed cast and above all a real will to give life to a film that depicts reality without trying to transfigure it. Of course this film is not a perfect film, but it is its fragility that makes it interesting. After two short films Stories We tell ourselves and Too long at the fair, director and screenwriter Jessie Barr recounts her transition to feature film and we follow with pleasure the journey of this rebellious teenager who is not afraid to try new experiences.

We also understand the presence of this film in the official competition because it reveals an inspired young director who makes her film a real land of experimentation and surrounds herself for the occasion with young actresses wishing to finally have consistent roles in cinema far from being relayed to appearances in films or series. Although Sophie Jones is not perfect, notably a rhythm that we would have liked to have seen faster and more original dialogue, it is an interesting first film by a young director to follow.

Sophie Jones
Written and directed by Jessie Barr
Produced by Jessie Barr, Joe Dinnen, Lindsay Friedman
Starring Jessica Barr, Skyler Verity, Claire Manning, Charlie Jackson, Dave Roberts, Tristan Decker, Sam Kamerman, Elle Layne, Chase Offerle
Music by Nate Heller
Cinematography: Scott Miller
Edited by Naomi Sunrise Filoramo
Running time : 85mns

Seen on September 10, 2020 at the Centre International de Deauville, in VO

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