Girl Flu

Writer-director Dorie Barton deftly balances tricky tones in this drama-comedy about a mother and daughter who simultaneously have to face growing up in different but equally traumatic ways. Twelve-year-old Bird (Jade Pettyjohn) is the de facto adult in the chaotic home that she shares with her pot-smoking, childlike mother, Jenny (Katee Sackhoff). Frustrated by Jenny's unwillingness to let her do essential tasks (such as grocery shopping), Bird is in a constant state of misery, unmoored by the absence of grown-up guidance. Things escalate when Bird gets her first period during a school picnic and is humiliated by mean girls in front of boys. In a crisis mindset for the next several days, Bird is advised by Jenny's more grounded friend (Heather Matarazzo) on using tampons and pads, and she lashes out at her mother at the same time that Jenny's decent, musician boyfriend (Jeremy Sisto) is asking serious questions about the future of their relationship. First-time director Barton draws razor-sharp performances from everyone, seamlessly blending a certain giddiness with powerful drama and moments of satirical whimsicality, and Sackhoff is especially impressive as a woman exhausted by her own impulsivity and ensuing guilt. Recommended. (T. Keogh)