Stephanie

Directed by Akiva Goldsman, Stephanie follows the title figure, a resourceful young girl, as she attempts to take care of herself in the wake of her parents’ absence – although, as becomes clear quickly enough, there’s something fairly sinister occurring both within the house and in the outside world. Filmmaker Goldsman, working from Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski’s screenplay, delivers an admittedly bizarre yet undeniably striking opening stretch revolving around Stephanie’s sporadically tense solo exploits (eg she attempts to make a smoothie in perhaps the most dangerous way imaginable), with the relative effectiveness of such scenes heightened by lead performer Shree Crooks’ solid work as the sympathetic protagonist and, as well, the somewhat intriguing nature of the mystery behind what’s actually going on here. It’s the latter that eventually (and slowly-but-surely) drains the viewer’s interest and attention, as the pervasive lack of context paves the way for an arms-length midsection that contains little, if anything, for one to wholeheartedly connect to and get invested in (ie it’s all just so bafflingly, infuriatingly abstract). By the time Goldsman finally explains all, which doesn’t happen until the final 15 minutes or so, Stephanie has alienated the viewer so completely and thoroughly that it’s utterly impossible to work up the slightest bit of enthusiasm for the various revelations – with the end result a total misfire that might’ve worked as a short but has no business running a full 86 minutes.

*1/2 out of ****