The Moment a Parent Starts to See

MOVIE REVIEW
Such A Pretty Girl
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Genre: Drama, Short
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 6m
Director(s): Deborah Puette
Writer(s): Deborah Puette
Cast: Sarah Drew, Harry Groener, Cole Moreno
Where to Watch: Showing at the Sunscreen Film Festival on April 27, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: Now and then, a short film lands not with spectacle but with clarity—a quiet moment that unfolds with purpose, capturing a shift in perspective as it’s happening. SUCH A PRETTY GIRL takes that challenge head-on and succeeds by focusing less on loud revelations and more on what lingers in glances, gestures, and the quiet spaces between words. It delivers a moment of personal reckoning without pushing for tidy answers or emotional shortcuts, all in just six minutes.

The premise is disarmingly simple: a family is getting ready for church. But within that ordinary setup, tensions begin to simmer. The story is told in real time, which means there’s no cutaway to the past or future, no flashbacks, and no dramatic pauses. Everything builds within the natural pace of one morning, anchored by Meg, a mother navigating the thin line between what’s expected of her and what her heart knows is right. Sarah Drew brings a layered performance to the role—her presence doesn’t command the screen in the traditional sense, but it holds a stillness that feels heavy with history.

The real spark of the piece comes from Finn, Meg’s twelve-year-old, played with subtlety by Cole Moreno. Their performance is not about big speeches or climactic confrontations but rather small truths—hesitations, silent observations, and moments of quiet courage. When Finn steps into an old dress from Meg’s past, it's not staged for shock or symbolism. Instead, it plays like a genuine, deeply personal discovery that catches both parent and child off guard.

What follows isn't a scene drenched in conflict but something more nuanced. The arrival of Meg’s father, Frank—played by Harry Groener—adds a layer of expectation to the already fragile moment. Groener doesn’t push the character into caricature; he plays Frank with restraint, carrying the weight of tradition without turning into a one-note antagonist. It’s that balance that gives the story its real emotional push. The parents are human—they’re just people trying to figure out how to move forward while holding onto what they think they know.

SUCH A PRETTY GIRL thrives on restraint. That’s not always an easy ask in short-form storytelling, where there’s a temptation to lean into big swings to compensate for the limited runtime. But here, the creative team opts for something more confident: trusting that the audience will pick up on the undercurrents. Writer-director Deborah Puette doesn’t force the message, and she avoids framing the story around binary conflicts. There’s no villain, no savior, just the reality of how hard it is to change when the rules you’ve lived by don’t quite fit anymore.

One of the standout decisions in this production is casting a trans actor to play Finn. It's not just about representation—it adds an unspoken depth to the performance, making Finn feel real and honest. Nothing about Moreno’s work feels scripted or artificial. That authenticity moves the viewer more than any monologue could.

And that’s another point in the film’s favor: it trusts its silence. Not everything needs to be verbalized. There’s power in showing a character caught in a moment of change, especially when that change is more internal than external. When Meg is forced to react to Finn’s expression of self, she isn’t handed a perfectly written speech to resolve the situation. She reacts like someone who didn’t expect to challenge her beliefs this morning. And that authenticity makes her eventual gesture—small but deliberate—all the more impactful.

The short isn’t meant to be a complete portrait—it’s a snapshot, a focused moment frozen in time that hints at a larger story. Puette has confirmed that this project is a stepping stone toward a feature-length expansion, and the foundation is solid. The short does its job in proving the emotional and narrative weight that a longer project could support.

There’s also a quiet universality in its themes. Inspired by Puette’s experiences with her daughter and her father’s struggle to accept change, the story feels deeply personal and accessible. Most viewers will recognize something in these characters—maybe not the specifics, but the emotional push and pull between tradition and identity, between who we were raised to be and who we’re becoming.

SUCH A PRETTY GIRL doesn’t aim for spectacle or melodrama. It works because it’s small, specific, and honest. It’s proof that sometimes, the quietest stories have the most to say—and that even the shortest films can stay with you long after they end.

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[photo courtesy of A SEASON OF RAIN]

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