‘Sweetness’ review: What happens when a fan’s idolization turns into obsession
4/5 hit songs
Everybody who has ever been a teenage fan of something knows how strong those feelings can be. Most of us got through those by taping pictures on our walls or having lurid fantasies in math class. Others–myself included–wrote fanfiction. These are the healthy coping mechanisms. What transpires in the teen thriller Sweetness is very different from that.
Premiering at this year’s South By Southwest festival, the film, penned and directed by Emma Higgins, follows the story of Rylee Hill (Kate Hallett). She’s a sixteen-year-old girl, and how she copes with the loss of her mom and her general teenage angst is with her favorite band, Floorplan. The alternative band calls to mind bands like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, both of which influenced Higgins as she wrote the script.
Rylee’s dad (Justin Chatwin) is distant, both physically and emotionally, and Rylee does not like his new girlfriend (Amanda Brugel). Her only friend Sidney (Aya Furukawa) is all she has besides her adoration for Floorplan’s charismatic and brooding singer Payton Adler (Herman Tømmeraas). So after a concert, when she has the moment a thousand fanfictions have imagined (surely Wattpad has a few) and gets to meet Payton after he accidentally hits her with his car, it seems like the film almost could be just about that.
Unfortunately for Payton, it does not end there. After offering to drive Rylee home, an after getting inside, he has an episode while high. This leads Rylee to discover that he has relapsed, something he has apparently done before. Her decision? Keep Payton tied to her bed until he detoxes. Once he’s okay, she’ll let him go.
This is where the crush begins to turn into a dark side of obsession. The film spirals quickly as Rylee’s grip on sanity seems to steadily loosen. Sidney tries to be the voice of reason for her friend, but Rylee won’t listen. In her mind, she is doing Payton a favor and saving his career, and she will let him go once she deems him healthy.
While this is obviously not a normal response, the way it is presented to us makes us feel like it is. And that is one of the film’s strong suits. Rylee is not glammed up in any way–in fact, the way she dresses and does her eyeliner like most of us emo girls did in the early 2000s. It lends an air of authenticity that helps the viewer fall easily into the narrative without much coercion, and that is what makes it work.
She’s his number one fan
After the tone of the film deteriorates, we are left with a bleak outlook: Rylee is less of a fangirl and more of an obsessive fan who will do whatever she deems necessary. Though her choices of weapons aren’t hammers and a typewriter, Annie Wilkes still comes to mind as we follow Rylee along her journey into the darker parts of obsession.
What makes the film work, and what makes it more terrifying, is that Rylee isn’t really an un-relatable character. Teenage crushes are a part of growing up, and as somebody who felt like an outcast when I was around Rylee’s age, I couldn’t help but feel for her. She was grieving her mom, and her dad couldn’t even say that he loved her without prompting.
Sweetness is is a wild ride once it picks up, and it does not shy away from the dark reality it is showing. Rylee doesn’t know how to channel her love for Payton into something genuine, and it seems she does not really know how vast and varied romantic love can be. She is conditioned by society to think that things like sex are the only ways to express love.
Though there are some stumbling points in pacing and getting time to really know and learn these characters, Sweetness will still leave you with a decidedly unsweet taste in your mouth. It is a solid jump into long form filmmaking for Higgins, and I hope that there will be more to follow.
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