Why “Babyteeth” on Netflix Is a Must-Watch for Every Woman in 2021
Through my messy tears, I can’t recommend it enough
I skim-read a glowing review and I thought “huh, looks interesting” and so last week, on New Year’s Eve, I pressed Play on the film Babyteeth (which was made in 2019, and is newly available on Netflix).
Then half an hour later I paused the film because I could tell it was the sort of film I’d need to think about, and I wanted to drink cocktails and laugh a bit, because it was New Year’s Eve. So I turned off the TV.
I went back to Babyteeth the next day though and that time, I did think about it. That time, I concentrated. And then the film hauled me down a deep emotional hole and kept me there until I wondered if I had any tears left.
Babyteeth is about a teenage girl, Milla, who is very very sick. But this film is not “illness porn”. There are no hospital scenes or details given of her cancer at any stage; in fact, it isn’t mentioned at all until several scenes into the film, and then it’s really a side note, mentioned in a scene-setting subtitle.
The film is about Milla and it’s about her parents, too, a psychiatrist and his constantly-sedated wife. She is a woman who is slowly falling apart behind her neat shirtdresses and her eucalyptus-laden…
