Sweet Parents
By: Richard Mukuze
Tags: Film, New York, Film Reviews, Movies, Filmmaking

Sweet Parents

Not enough people have heard of Sweet Parents and I think this is a crime because David Bly’s directorial debut is an incredible portrait of the struggles of big city living and trying to make it in a career where everything is seemingly stacked against you.

Sweet Parents follows the lives of Gabby and Will, a young couple who moved to new york with the hopes of making it as a renowned sculptor and a successful chef. They’ve now lived in New York for eight years and are no closer than when they started. Living paycheck to paycheck, barely affording to pay rent for a shoebox apartment that would be small for one person, let alone two. However, their lives begin to change, seemingly for the better, when a successful older man and older woman enter their lives, bringing new opportunities but slowly pulling them apart.

What works so well about this film is how raw and genuine it feels. David Bly was able to perfectly capture the struggle so many people are facing. We as an audience feel very close with our main characters and their struggle as we’re always placed very close to them visually. The camerawork in this film is mostly handheld and shot fairly close to the subjects so we feel as if we’re actually there, observing our characters’ lives. The colour palette is also very naturalistic and the rooms are mostly dimly lit. This all adds to this very grounded and personal feeling. However, when our protagonist’s lives are on the come up, the lighting of the film changes, becoming fairly bright as they’re now in these grand modern rooms. This contrast from when our characters return back to their normal lives was great as it helped place us in the mindset of our protagonists and understand the nuance in their thought process and why they do what they do.

The story of this film also works extremely well with the visuals as The story does oscillate between two moods, as both of our protagonists essentially live two different lives until they eventually pick one. However, one of the main problems with this film is in some ways it does fail to be fair to both protagonists. Throughout the story, the fact that this relationship in its current form won’t work is apparent however I did find myself taking a side in the relationship rather than being impartial. Some of Will’s behaviour felt completely unwarranted and at times he just came across as the villain when I don’t think this was the intention. Aside from this, I think The relationship between Gabby, Will and their two benefactors was really well developed and the journey of their story felt natural and completely believable leading up to an ending that has none of the glossy movie magic you’d expect to see but rather it’s extremely sombre, grounded and truthful.

Those three words are why I think this is a film is something more people should see. This film tells a story very similar to many people in a way that feels incredibly authentic and unvarnished, and it does so with an incredible visual style and some great performances.

Sweet Parents is available now on digital platforms nationwide.