"Stephanie Daley" is the kind of little indie that is often better than the more heavily publicized Hollywood product it competes for attention with. In this case, director-writer Hilary Brougher has created an interesting tension between pregnant psychologist Tilda Swinton (whose character has previously had a stillborn child) and Amber Tamblyn's 16 year old, charged with killing her own baby. The setting, a conservative,religious small town, is convincingly created from a composite of three different places in upstate New York. Brougher is not afraid to have her cinematographer shoot in a naturalistic way, sometimes leaving figures in darkness. I especially liked the conception in the supporting roles of Satin, a skeptical pudgy schoolmate,played by Caitlin Van Zandt (I hope we will see more of her) but there is also good support from Timothy Hutton as Swinton's husband, and (as expected) Melissa Leo as Tamblyn's mother. I am not surprised that this was a good movie, as usually anything with Tilda Swinton's name on it (she also executive-produced) is worth trying.
Review of Stephanie Daley
