I’ve been watching Zoe Kazan since I saw her on stage in The Seagull where she and Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan acted circles around veteran actors Kristen Scott Thomas and Peter Sarsgaard. Last year was a breakthrough year for her onscreen playing daughters, first of Robin Wright in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and then of Meryl Streep in It’s Complicated.
But this year begins with a bang and Zoe gets her own film. She stars as the Exploding Girl in Bradley Rust Gray’s new film. He wrote it for Zoe after they spent a lot of time walking and talking together. Zoe plays Ivy a young college student home for spring break. She’s at the beginning of a new relationship with a guy at school and this week away has made Ivy unsure of how they feel about each other. Ivy is a typical 20 year old and spends a lot on time on the phone. The cell phone is basically a character in the film. The conversations with Ivy and the boyfriend are full of awkward silences and remind us that while we might be more connected to people, at the same time it’s even harder to truly connect.
The emotions of a young woman not yet an adult and no longer child are written all over Zoe’s face. She’s at the stage where everything feels slippery and unsure. She doesn’t yet know where she fits into the world and to complicate matters she also has to deal with a chronic medical condition that has made her grow up much faster than others around her. For example, she might have a hard time having children because of the medication she takes. That’s just her reality. She also can’t take a bath alone because she could have a seizure and drown. But she manages this chronic condition with the help and understanding of her long time friend Al (played by Mark Rendall), and their week together (his parents rented out his room so he sleeps on Ivy’s mom’s couch) brings to the fore feelings she really never knew she had.
Zoe Kazan is the real deal. She’s going to have a long career in film and theatre as an actor and a writer since she is also a playwright. I am excited to keep watching her work. Count me as a big fan.
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I adored her in Orson Welles, so I’m excited to see this.