Weepah Way for Now
Delightful, full-of-life drama about two sisters, played by real life siblings AJ and Aly Michalka.
Stephen Ringer’s debut feature lays out a kind of romantic realism similar in style to Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy – it skims off the most perfect level of real life, the moments when reality seems most movie-like.
Playing former teen idols Elle and Joy, AJ and Aly Michalka get to draw heavily on their own life experience, and the natural quality of their rapid-fire sibling chatter lends the film sweetness and charm.
At several moments the main plot is interrupted by flashes from grainy home movies. In other hands this could easily have come off as a hammy gimmick but here it becomes much more: when the sisters perform as their mother watches on and the screen rushes through scenes of them dancing through their childhood, we get what it is to have been with someone for their entire life. Each new moment is folded into a million others. It’s this feeling that the movie captures so perfectly: the glow that life takes on in the little moments that seem better than real.
Weepah Way for Now screens in Glasgow Film Festival: 24 Feb, CCA, 6.30pm | 25 Feb, CCA, 1.30pm
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