Writer/director Jacquelyn Frohlich‘s feature debut “Wayward” strays from being defined by genre — and that’s the whole point.
A road trip drama meets coming-of-age thriller, “Wayward” follows 11-year-old Cleo (Chloe Guidry), who becomes enchanted with the charismatic female hitchhiker (Jessica Sula) whom her mother (Jess Weixler) picks up as they drive to their new home in Los Angeles. When Cleo and the hitchhiker form an unlikely bond, the line between kidnapping and running away becomes dangerously blurred. Will Brittain also stars.
Writer/director Jacquelyn Frohlich makes her feature debut with the film, which premiered at the 2023 Deauville Film Festival. Frequent Duplass Brothers collaborator Ian Michaels produces, with Colleen Camp and Weixler executive producing.
“Childhood can be a treacherous time, and that reality is often avoided in films or over-sentimentalized,” Frohlich said in a press statement. “‘Wayward’ was a quest to make a film where the main voice, the one we hear above all others, captures the authenticity and point of view of a child. By giving Cleo, my 11-year-old protagonist, the job of interpreter, I sought to evoke a world that would be at once familiar and strangely unknown.”
Frohlich continued, “‘Wayward’ is also a story of longing, longing to belong, longing to matter, and this is as true for the adults in the film as it is for Cleo. The thriller genre, with its convention of subverting expectations, offered me the chance to tell this story in an unlikely way.”
The filmmaker added that her feature debut allowed her to fully express her art.
“Getting to make ‘Wayward’ after I had so much life behind me also made me braver: it freed me to tell the whole truth as I understood it,” Frohlich said. “And after so many years spent alone in a room trying to write novels, film offered the joy and relief of collaboration.”
The film was made for $300,000 in 2021. Lead star Guidry went on to become a breakout actress in the series “Under the Bridge.” Co-star Sula is now cast as LaToya Jackson in Antoine Fuqua’s upcoming Michael Jackson biopic. Indie icon Weixler recently appeared in “Monsters” Season 2 as Jill Lansing, plus starred in the feature “Fully Realized Humans.” Her cult film “Teeth” is also now a musical.
“Wayward” is now in theaters in Los Angeles and New York from Abramorama, with an expanded theatrical release later. Check out the trailer below.
