Princess Cyd (2017)
Eager to escape life with her depressive single
father, 16-year-old athlete Cyd Loughlin visits her novelist aunt in
Chicago over the summer. While there, she falls for a girl in the ...
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Director:
Stephen ConeWriter:
Stephen Cone
1 win.
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Eager to escape life with her depressive single father, 16-year-old
athlete Cyd Loughlin visits her novelist aunt in Chicago over the
summer. While there, she falls for a girl in the neighborhood, even as
she and her aunt gently challenge each other in the realms of sex and
spirit.
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
3 November 2017 (USA) See more »Filming Locations:
Chicago, Illinois, USACompany Credits
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Color:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1
Princess
Cyd (2017) was written and directed by Stephen Cone. Reviewers have
described it as a coming-of-age movie, and that's what it is. However,
that's only partly what it is.
Jessie Pinnick plays Cyd Loughlin, a young woman who is visiting her Aunt Miranda in Chicago for the summer. Cyd hasn't clarified her sexual identity, but, as far as we can tell, she's bisexual. As you'd expect, experiences during the summer help shape who Cyd is, and who she wants to be. OK--fair enough, but nothing truly unusual.
Rebecca Spence plays Cyd's Aunt Miranda. Spence gives a riveting performance as an adult who has come of age. She knows who she is, she knows what she is, and she knows where she wants to be. It would have been easy for director Cone to make Miranda a fussy aunt, or a drunken aunt, or a sexually promiscuous aunt. She's none of those. She likes her life, she loves Cyd, and she is a whole person in herself, not just in relationship to her niece. It's wonderful to see the skill with which Spence portrays this role.
Princess Cyd was shown at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre, as the opening night selection of ImageOut, the great Rochester LGBT Film Festival. My prediction is that it will win the audience award as best narrative film. It was certainly my best narrative film. It will work well on the small screen. It's definitely worth seeking out and watching.
Jessie Pinnick plays Cyd Loughlin, a young woman who is visiting her Aunt Miranda in Chicago for the summer. Cyd hasn't clarified her sexual identity, but, as far as we can tell, she's bisexual. As you'd expect, experiences during the summer help shape who Cyd is, and who she wants to be. OK--fair enough, but nothing truly unusual.
Rebecca Spence plays Cyd's Aunt Miranda. Spence gives a riveting performance as an adult who has come of age. She knows who she is, she knows what she is, and she knows where she wants to be. It would have been easy for director Cone to make Miranda a fussy aunt, or a drunken aunt, or a sexually promiscuous aunt. She's none of those. She likes her life, she loves Cyd, and she is a whole person in herself, not just in relationship to her niece. It's wonderful to see the skill with which Spence portrays this role.
Princess Cyd was shown at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre, as the opening night selection of ImageOut, the great Rochester LGBT Film Festival. My prediction is that it will win the audience award as best narrative film. It was certainly my best narrative film. It will work well on the small screen. It's definitely worth seeking out and watching.
An emotionally and sexually adventurous teen and her novelist aunt get to know each other in a coming-of-age drama by Chicago filmmaker Stephen Cone.
When 16-year-old Cyd announces with cheerful nonchalance that "I
don't really read," she's in a book-lined room, and more than a few of
the volumes on the shelves were written by her aunt Miranda, the woman
she's addressing. Their literary divide is one of several obvious
differences between the two. But what might have devolved into cutesy
odd-couple territory instead moves in unexpected directions, bolstered
by a fundamental idealism.
Even with a backstory of devastating violence (handled with impressive concision), Princess Cyd
is a film in which strangers are open and kind and where friends, in a
casual ritual of spiritual communion, gather to share meals and read
literary passages to one another.
Premiering at BAMcinemaFest in New York, the new feature by Stephen Cone (Henry Gamble's Birthday Party)
can be clunkily earnest, but it rises above those lapses to build a
believable sense of awakening around its well-played central duo, who,
in different ways, undergo physical awakenings during their time
together.
The action begins nine years after the calamitous background event,
when vivacious soccer player Cyd (Jessie Pinnick), at her widowed
father's suggestion, travels to Chicago from South Carolina (more a
random point of reference than a true place in the story) to spend a few
summer weeks with Miranda (Rebecca Spence), her mother's sister. As
with any sudden pairing, the new circumstances present awkward territory
to navigate — territory that Cyd, with little deference to age, tends
to bluster into tactlessly, questioning her aunt about her sex life and
offering callow, judgmental advice. But even with her insensitive
remarks, Cone frames their differences not as a clash but as a rewarding
mutual inquiry.
In addition to the 40-ish Miranda's prolific literary pursuits, her
religious faith — a matter of bemused curiosity to her niece — is a
source of sustenance and joy. While Miranda is contentedly unattached,
Cyd is exploring her sexuality from whatever angle presents itself. She
has a sort-of boyfriend back home, and shares a hot and heavy moment
with a handsome neighbor (Matthew Quattrocki) of Miranda's. But it's
Katie (Malic White, very good), a mohawked barista with an exceptionally
warm gaze, who truly captures her attention. Given that Cyd and her
aunt are still getting to know each other, the ease with which Cyd tells
her about the blossoming romance, and Miranda's delighted reaction, are
emblematic of Cone's optimistic view of human nature.
When he makes room for true friction, the results are charged. Spence
delivers Miranda's response to an offhanded insult from Cyd not just
with ferocious clarity but with an electric sense of self-knowledge
unfolding in the instant. More melodramatic turns of event are, in
contrast, fumbled — notably a sequence involving an attempted sexual
assault.
Cone isn't above schmaltzy montages, but to the writer-director's
credit, he doesn't tie up every loose end of his hopeful story. He
leaves the unexpressed feelings between Miranda and her longtime friend
Anthony (James Vincent Meredith), a fellow writer, achingly unresolved.
Dreamy and earthbound, Princess Cyd is less interested in so-called answers than in its characters' stumbling grace.
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