She’s smarter than her peers, she lays out rapid-fire, self-deprecating, and funny repartee with ease. But there’s something under the surface that Winona (Jessica Barden) is hiding from the world, and maybe even herself.
Pink Skies Ahead from first time director Kelly Oxford is adapted from her successful autobiographical essay about how severe anxiety fought its way past her snarkily funny exterior until she had no choice but to tackle it head-on.
It may be potentially heavy subject matter, but this is no boring classroom film – no, it’s a hip, culturally aware script, set in 1998. It’s also funny, painted with candy colors (including Winona’s electric blue hair) and 90s alt-rock music cues.
In an absolutely outstanding performance by Barden, Winona drops out of college, moves back in with her parents, who are doting yet obviously exhausted, (Michael McKean and Marcia Gay Harden strike just the right tones). She drums up enough psychosomatic symptoms to keep her on a well worn path to her pediatrician, yes, the same pediatrician she’s had since childhood, played with a calm sweetness by Henry Winkler.
The doctor lays it down in plain language: she doesn’t have cancer or any other physical health issues; she has anxiety and she should seek therapy. Initially, Winona sees a therapist played by Mary J. Blige in a cameo before going to a group session in which she is, apparently, the only one who’s never had a panic attack.
There are sub-plots about a nice but boring boyfriend (Lewis Pullman) that doesn’t go the way we expect, a possible affair she suspects her father of having, and girly time with her BFF and compulsive shoplifter (Odeya Rush). Also scenes that involve job interviews which range from flirtatious to disastrous. I leave all of that for you to discover.
At a tight 90 minutes, you wonder if Oxford is going to touch all the narrative bases before time runs out – she does it by making Winona’s step forward the ending, rather than the middle. A perfect choice. After all, the title is Pink Skies Ahead.
The film will make its commercial-free premiere on Saturday, May 8 at 9:00PM ET/PT on MTV (with a simulcast on Pop TV). 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Reviewed by Kyle Osborne
