‘Kissing Candice’ Is A Beautifully Shot Female Coming-Of-Age Story [TIFF Review]

There’s a moment early in “Kissing Candice” that recalls a fake trailer Andy Samberg made for his 2013 Independent Spirit Awards hosting gig, mocking the sort of movies that get nominated for Independent Spirit Awards. The trailer, “Bottlecap,” sells the inspirational story of Bottlecap, whose only desire is to stick her arm out of car windows and roll her hand in the wind. She’s stymied by her father, J.K. Simmons with a perm, who says things like “I hear you’ve been flip-flopping your hand around in the air like some kind of idiot” and “you’ll do what I say!” The trailer has copious shots, with varying degrees of focus-racking, of Bottlecap’s hand rolling sensitively in the wind.

One of the first scenes in “Kissing Candice” has Candice (Ann Skelly), a wayward Irish teen, sitting in the back of a car, alone, while her friends run into a convenience store. Candice notices a grasshopper perched on the car’s interior windowsill. She reaches out and lightly, sensitively, contemplatively brushes the insect with her fingers. Then, director Aoife McArdle cuts to outside of the window looking in, and very slowly racks focus from Candice to the grasshopper. It is the very essence of what Samberg was poking fun at in uber-sensitive artiste indie cinema. And it’s indicative of the film as a whole: genuinely compelling imagery paired with a nonsensically told narrative.

McArdle is a music video director by trade, and it shows in every frame of this, her first feature film. The filmmaker creates truly gorgeous, original visuals, with slow, deliberate camera movements and stark colors, but the problem is that McArdle is trying to tell a feature-length story using the kind of aesthetics that are better paired with music in a much shorter format. Additionally, McArdle seems to struggle with film structure and storytelling.

Candice is, as I mentioned above, a wayward Irish teen. She’s also epileptic. Like so many wayward teens in so many coming-of-age films, Candice is disillusioned with her hometown and bored by her life, but McArdle succeeds at capturing her dreary day-to-day existence. In her boredom, Candice dreams up an imaginary boyfriend (Ryan Lincoln) to keep her company. Soon, her dream-boy turns up in real life, saving her from a particularly awful assault by the local gang he’s a part of. She develops a relationship with Jacob, the realized version of her imaginary boyfriend, to the chagrin of her police-officer father (himself very much in the vein of J.K. Simmons, barking things like “I make [your] decisions!”)

“Kissing Candice” is compelling in its first two acts, but exclusively when Candice is in the scene. Whenever McArdle cuts to Candice’s dad, or some local gang members, or to Jacob, the film slows to a halt. None of the characters here, aside from Candice herself, are the least bit compelling, charismatic, or even interesting. The third act, however, goes fully and totally off the rails and cannot be saved even by Candice’s consistent presence. It’s a shame, really, because McArdle really has you rooting for her in those first two acts. The final act involves gang violence, weird Nolanesque timelines, unbelievable (in the truest sense of the word) romance, and more. It’s as if McArdle is trying her best to throw all of the goodwill she accumulated early in the film into a blazing furnace.

“Kissing Candice” reminded me a bit of “Raw,” one of my favorite movies of the year, and another coming-of-age female sexuality tale by a first-time female filmmaker (the shockingly brilliant Julia Ducournau). Like “Candice,” “Raw” is full to the brim with arresting imagery, stark colors, and somewhat unsubtle analogies about repression and more. Unlike “Candice,” “Raw” also has a compelling narrative, fascinating supporting characters, and, most importantly, tonal consistency throughout.

It must be said, though, that Ann Skelly is remarkable as Candice. I’m not sure how much that has to do with her having a fascinating physicality as opposed to natural acting ability, but the performance is virtually flawless (up to the point of nonsensical car chases and action sequences). She gets to be funny and empathetic and depressed, and manages it all seemingly effortlessly.

“Kissing Candice” leaves me first and foremost wanting to see more from director McArdle. I’d be very curious to see what she’d do with a script she hadn’t written, as it’s her script that makes for the film’s worst moments. Still, it’s more likely than not that she’ll improve as a writer with each new project, and there is no question that she has the potential to become a must-watch indie auteur. Unfortunately, “Kissing Candice” sees her off to a slightly uneven start. [B-]

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