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Cast: Kara Hayward (Moonrise Kingdom), Liana Liberato (If I Stay), Jordana Spiro (Netflix’s “Ozark”), Shea Whigham (Joker) with Malin Akerman (Watchmen) and Tony Hale (HBO’s “Veep’)
Under small town scrutiny, a withdrawn farmer's daughter forges an intimate friendship with a worldly but reckless new girl in 1960s Oklahoma.
'To the Stars' tells the story of Iris Deerborne, a young lady who gets bullied at school and dominated at home by her over bearing mother who drinks too much and picks on her hard working husband all the time. But things begin to change for Iris when a new girl moves to town. Maggie is from the city and comes from a very strict religious home but has a bit of a wild side to her. Maggie befriends Iris over time and the two become very close as Iris begins to come out of her shell everyone takes notice including the local boy who works for her father.
The film is a drama about the two totally opposite people who who form an unexpected friendship. The story might seem simple on the outside but there are many different characters and there is a lot going on in the film. To talk too much about the film and what happens would only ruin it for those who are waiting to see it so I am not going to spoil it for everyone.
I read the film was shot in color and in non-color but the version I got was in color. I can only guess that they decided in the end to go with the colored version of the time for whatever reason. Either way the film looks terrific, there are lots of scenes shot with wide open spaces making it seem so peaceful.
Another thing and possibly the best part of the movie was the cast. The film has a great supporting cast including Jordana Spiro, Malin Akerman and Shea Whigham but it ultimately belongs to its two stars, Liana Liberato who plays Maggie and Kara Hayward who plays Iris. Both really shine and give the have great chemistry together. The film was written by Shannon Bradley-Colleary, this is her debut as a Writer and I hope it will not be her last. The film was directed by Martha Stephens, this is her fourth feature film behind the camera and her best to date. I loved that women are featured so much in the film and it making it. I really hope to see a lot more from them all.
The story is an interesting one and moves along quite nice but it also has a few twists as well with one coming during the last act that will shock you. It totally changed the mood of the film for me. 'To the Stars' is a fantastic coming of age film with an outstanding cast. It is both amazing and powerful and I highly recommend seeing it when it comes to Digital on April 24, 2020.
Released by Samuel Goldwyn Films
**** Out Of *****