Following a successful premiere at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, Australian indie “Girl Asleep” is finally getting a stateside release via the good folks at Oscilloscope Laboratories. On style alone, it’s clear this film is going to be compared to “Napoleon Dynamite” and the various works of Wes Anderson, but this isn’t just a typical coming-of-age tale.
The premise sounds familiar. A 14-year-old girl named Greta, played by Bethany Whitmore, is on the border of being cool and being a loser, and to celebrate her upcoming 15th birthday, her parents decide to throw her a surprise birthday party. Hilarity and teen angst follows. However, things get especially strange when Greta is sent to a fantasy world, a la “Alice in Wonderland.” Here’s the official synopsis:
In this vibrant portrayal of Australian adolescence, Greta Driscoll’s bubble of obscure loserdom is burst when her parents throw her a surprise 15th birthday party and invite the whole school! Perfectly content being a wallflower, suddenly Greta’s flung far from her comfort zone into a distant, parallel place — a strange world that’s a little frightening and a lot weird, but only there can she find herself. Equal measures Wes Anderson and Lewis Carroll, GIRL ASLEEP is an enchanting journey into the absurd — and sometimes scary — depths of the teenage mind.
The film is the product of Rosemary Myers, in her directorial debut. “Girl Asleep” opens on September 28th.