Movie Review: 'Turtles All the Way Down' Starring Isabela Merced

Turtles All the Way Down (2024)

Directed by Hannah Marks

Written by Elizabeth Berger, Isaac Aptaker

Starring Isabela Merced, Cree Cicchino, Felix Mallard, Judy Reyes

Release Date May 2nd, 2024

Published

Turtles All the Way Down is a film adaptation of a Hank Green novel. The film stars Isabela Merced as a teenager struggling with OCD and other related mental issues, some of which are related to the death of her father. Merced's Aza gets roped into a true crime story by her best friend, Daisy (Cree Cicchino from Nickelodeon's Game Shakers), after a friend's father goes missing. The friend is a smoking hottie named Davis Pickett (Felix Mallard). Davis and Aza met at a camp for kids who have lost parents. Now, Davis has seemingly lost another parent under very suspicious circumstances and Daisy thinks they can find him and collect a reward.

It's more than a little convoluted but, I must say, I completely adore Cree Cicchino as Daisy. She feels exactly like the kind of friend who you enjoy getting into trouble with. Granted, trying to solve a missing person case is not your average kind of trouble to find, but nevertheless that's the plot and damned if Cicchino's infectious excitement doesn't make you want to follow her down this rabbit hole. Naturally, this is a Hank Green adaptation, it will be a journey of self exploration. There is grief, mental illness, and teen romance. Aza and Davis are on a collision course and how he takes to finding out that she's trying to get a reward for finding his missing dad is the pivot point for what drama there is in Turtles All the Way Down.

At least, that was my superficial reading of the film's first act. Things get completely turned around in the second act when Davis does something completely unpredictable. How you react to this twist in the tale will determine how you feel about the whole of Turtles All the Way Down. I found it unbelievable tacky with implications that this movie is not remotely interested in addressing. That said, I was impressed by the audacity of the idea. So there is that. It does take a rather wonky narrative and shift gears completely and there is certainly something positive to say for that as well. Director Hannah Marks is taking big swings and I appreciate that.

Davis is uber-rich. With his father missing, he seems to be entirely in charge of his family's wealth and he uses that wealth and privilege to give Aza experiences that she could not have without his vast wealth and privilege. This includes a trip to Northwestern University where she meets her hero, a college professor whose Ted Talks have provided a boon for Aza in the darkness of her mental health crises. It's a big emotional moment, that also pauses to explain the film's title and damned if Isabela Merced's emotional performance doesn't convince me to forget about Davis manipulating her emotions with his money.

I must praise director Hannah Marks also for the portrayal of Aza's mental illness. I can't begin to understand what OCD is like but for her to link the disorder to a specific physical expression of Hannah's illness is smart, it's a good short hand for when the film is going to downshift into portraying the chaotic landslide that occurs when Aza's illness overtakes her. Isabela Merced's eyes communicate her pain in an extraordinary fashion and the swirling sound design, aping elements of a psychedelic trip, place the audience in Aza's perspective increasing our identification with the character. It's filmmaking and screenwriting 101 but it's done well. I'm sure a mental health professional could speak with more eloquence and critical analysis of the film's depiction of O.C.D, but this worked for me.

The biggest problem I have with Turtles All the Way Down is the distinct lack of Cree Cicchino's Daisy late in the second act until late in the third. Daisy has to be minimized, I guess, so we can get to the teen romance of it all but she's so much fun that I kept missing her presence. When she does come back, it's a bit dour as the movie is shifting to be more about the dramatic consequences of Aza's illness but I was still happy to see her and even more excited when she stuck around for the ending and takes center stage the final moments. Am I recommending Turtles All the Way Down? Yes, it's a solid teen drama but I can also recommend it because Cree Cicchino is wonderful and deserves your attention.

I will point out one final flaw in the film, one bit of off-putting product placement that got on my nerves. Apparently, where Aza and Cree live, there is only one restaurant and they always go there. They always go to Applebees. Not only do they always go to Applebees they also talk about the menu and display the food and the signage prominently. I get it, corporate synergy, Applebees paid to be in the movie, blah blah blah. That said, Max/Discovery, the distributor of Turtles All the Way Down, is paying their CEO $60 million dollars per year. Can't they take some of the money they give him to put movies on the shelf for tax reasons and give it to the filmmakers so they don't have to prostitute their movies to other corporate interests just to get the movie made? Rant over.

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