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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Future Weather

FUTURE WEATHER (Jenny Deller). 100 minutes. Opens Friday (March 1) at the Carlton. For venues and times, see listings. Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN


Future Weather, Jenny Deller’s debut feature, is all about the burdens that parents put on their children, psychological trauma and climate change included.

Perla Haney-Jardine (Uma Thurman’s daughter in Kill Bill) delivers a wise-beyond-her-years performance as Lauduree, a smart 13-year-old green freak who’s abandoned by her young, reckless mother and assumes responsibility for both herself and the planet. When she runs into trouble with the law for swiping an eco-friendly light bulb, she ends up in the custody of her grandmother, a gutsy curmudgeon played by powerhouse Amy Madigan.

Deller shows extraordinary control over material that could easily have veered toward poverty porn (Lauduree lives in a backwoods trailer) or beat us over the head with its climate change metaphor. Instead, the film keeps things intimate, focusing on Lauduree’s temperamental relationship with the adult world.

While Future Weather is brimming with ideas, some aren’t fully explored. Lauderee’s sexual awakening, for example, is barely teased out so it has little impact on her turbulent emotions. It left me wanting more, which isn’t such a bad thing for a novice filmmaker.

If Deller’s work continues to mature, her forecast looks bright.

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