Review: Sissy at Sydney Film Festival
Addy Fong checked out Sissy at Sydney Film Festival. Here are her thoughts:
Amongst the picture perfect posts lurks this sinister truth of what could be seen as commentary on the toxicity of social media that blinds us to this culture of youthful self-validation, and the constant need to be popular or seen online. The immediacy of social media seems to play on our addiction, our need to capture and share moments with anyone willing to validate us, whether real or brought.
Directed by Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes (pictured above), Sissy is an Australian horror film which revolves around best friends Cecilia (Aisha Dee), once known as ‘Sissy’ and Emma (Hannah Barlow) reconnecting after more than a decade apart. Cecilia, still holding onto her past, is confronted by her high school bully, Alex (Emily De Margheriti) when they all meet in a remote cabin in the woods on Emma’s bachelorette weekend.
Sissy begins with footage of the kids as children, shown through the use of tapes and flashbacks, as well as a time capsule, representing a friendship, a moment in time, and a particular childhood incident which is referenced throughout. Later on Cecilia diggs up a time capsule she created with Emma when they were children, a literal representation of something from the past being brought up (pun intended) symbolising Cecilia’s inability to move on. Sissy, now known as Cecilia, says throughout the film, ‘I don’t want to grow up, I want to stay like this forever.’
‘Forever’ is a haunting statement when echoed in the context of horror. Childhood innocence and playfulness brings up feelings of nostalgia, but when characters can’t seem to leave their past behind, something sinister lurks within the shadows. Throughout Sissy, it feels almost ironic observing the characters’ desire to move on from their past mistakes but end up trapped by them.
Cecilia, now a ‘social media influencer’ and ‘wellness coach’ has chosen a career that has provided her thousands of followers and online popularity. It’s a stark contrast to her childhood where she was the shy outcast and bullied by Alex, another girl in her class. Echoing throughout is Sissy’s mantra, ‘I am loved, I am special, I am trying my best. We all are.’ Just like Cecilia, the silly truth is we tend to seek validation from others, which despite the hilarious commentary presented in this film, is quite scary to think about. The dopamine hit social media validation provides seems to calm our protagonist Sissy in what seems to be a fish-out-of-water type situation, where comfort is found in likes and comments social media provides rather than genuine real world relationships.
There is no denying the flaws of all the characters throughout, which seems to highlight the fact that perfection is impossible and from the very start our flawed protagonist, or the antihero, Sissy, presents a skewed perspective to the story. In one clever camera move the film’s opening scene reveals this information to us, the camera dollies out and then gimbals out from a close up to a wide as it moves around the room revealing information outside of the perfectly composed frame of Sissy’s phone and ring light she’s set up in her living room. Beyond her 200k followers Cecilia lives in a world of unwashed dishes, leftover pizza boxes, and messy clothes. Let’s be honest, the truth is this: No girl has their shit together.
In certain scenes of the film, Barlow and Senes pay homage to well known horror film references – eyes without a face, the shining, cabin in the woods, the grudge, wolf creek, to name a few. I’ll admit, I was quite excited to notice these parts, it’s a subtle nod to well known horror tropes splattered throughout, providing fans of the genre a sense of comfort in the predictability of the film’s plot. Perhaps it could be said the cliche and predictability of horror provides familiarity or comfort to viewers when confronted with horror’s traumatic scenes.
Just like most characters in many horror movies, the characters in Sissy are ignorant as to what’s going on around them choosing to watch a dumb reality TV show rather than the news, seeming to not confront the truth of what is happening around them. In a sense this perhaps parallels our own experience, sometimes we would rather spend time immersed in a film as a form of escapism than sit uncomfortably in the truth.
Despite Sissy’s horror classification there are moments of comedy in what I found to be a fun film experience. Personally, I didn’t mind the film’s predictability. Just like the bright lights and Instagramable posts that fill our brains with dopamine or our unhealthy need for validation, we can’t look away.
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Sissy’s final screening at Sydney Film Festival is tonight, 15th June, at Dendy in Newtown at 8.45pm. For tickets and info, go here.
Review and photo by Addy Fong.
