Reminiscing about the glory days of youth? Don’t. Bestselling author John Green — whose work has spawned a legion of big- and small-screen adaptations — certainly doesn’t. In Green’s stories, teenagehood is hard enough (and then some) as his beloved characters go through puberty, prom, and first love in tandem with far bigger worries ranging from cancer to obsessive compulsive disorder. People go missing, people aren’t ever found, people die.
It’s not exactly the stuff of popcorn entertainment, but Green’s stories always place a premium on the viewpoint of the kids who experience them and the youngsters who observe them. Being a teenager? It’s not for the faint of heart. Being a Green teen? Well, at least someone is treating you like an adult.
The latest Green adaptation, “Turtles All the Way Down,” offers yet another sterling example of that mindset and the power of it. Rising young filmmaker Hannah Marks directs (her fourth credit, and continuing her ability to handle intimate stories with grace and humor) the fifth Green adaptation (following hits like “The Fault in Our Stars” and Hulu series “Looking for Alaska”). Arguably the most insular of Green’s books, “Turtles All the Way Down” follows teenager Aza Holmes (Isabela Merced, a Green veteran returning after “Let It Snow”) as she experiences all the normal teen troubles plus an OCD diagnosis few people in her life fully understand.
But, since this is a Green joint, there are misadventures that temporarily divert our attention, like the missing billionaire lurking just outside of the frame. Let’s go back a bit.
Aza’s OCD finds her fixated on germs, yes, but of the more internal variety: She’s constantly thinking about the various microbes and bacteria present in all lifeforms. That means her “thought spirals” convince her she’s somehow not real (if you’re made up of so many foreign microbes, she contends, do you even exist?) and she constantly picks at a callus on her finger, convinced she can push out the bad stuff, lather it in hand sanitizer, and somehow purify herself. She’s in therapy (it’s not helping), she’s got medication (she doesn’t take it), and she’s paralyzed by the recurring fear she’s going to get infected with C. diff.
She is also, of course, a teenager. She’s got a spunky best friend in Daisy (a delightful Cree Cicchino), and a secondary BFF with major artistic talent (Maliq Johnson). Her mom (the always-welcome Judy Reyes) is trying not to be overbearing, even as the two Holmes women still mourn the death of Aza’s dad years earlier. She has aspirations of going to Northwestern. She’s obsessed with the online teachings of a whipsmart philosophy professor (J. Smith-Cameron, perfect casting). And she’s kind of got a crush.
His name is Davis (Felix Mallard), they met at “sad camp” when they were recently bereft kids, and his billionaire dad has just gone missing. In any other story, said missing billionaire dad would be the center of the tale. But in this story, and in screenwriters Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker’s relatively trim adaptation, it’s just one odd element of Aza’s complex life. And, funnily enough, it works to push the teen mindset. Adults may wonder, hey, why is Davis so worried about dates with Aza when his goddamn father is missing? But again: teens!
As Davis’ missing dad lingers in the margins, “Turtles All the Way Down” pushes into Aza and Davis’ blossoming romance, much of it made dreamy and fun by virtue of a peppy soundtrack that can only temporarily obscure darker forces at play. Scene by scene, Marks’ film plays like a traditional high school-set rom-com, but things take a turn as Aza’s illness becomes more obvious. Where else but in a Green teen romance can our leading lady be so terrified of bacteria that the idea of kissing her number-one crush is her worst nightmare?
Marks doesn’t shy away from the internal nature of Aza’s illness, snapping frequently to shots meant to imitate her scariest thoughts (quick cuts to microbes, pills, bacteria) and occasionally fuzzing the dialogue to static when Aza tunes out of a conversation. Less effective are Marks’ on-screen depictions of smartphone-heavy teen life, with texting conversations turned into color-coded words that are hard to decipher or attribute to the appropriate person. One inspired bit: When Aza finds Davis’ Tumblr, instead of reading the words to herself, Marks cuts to a shot of Mallard reading them, seemingly right to Aza.
As Marks’ film winds on, Aza’s illness becomes more consuming both to her and the story at hand. The mystery — a missing billionaire who, we can imagine, becomes a minor footnote to Aza when she looks back on this time in her life — recedes, but as the more immediate stuff draws closer, we see they are inextricably linked. Even in a place of uncertainty there are some things that can be tied up, however unhappily. Even when the answers aren’t the ones we want to hear, it’s nice to have them. What’s more adult than that?
Grade: B-
“Turtles All the Way Down” starts streaming on Max on Friday, May 2.
