Mouse
The best part of high school junior Minnie Dunn's (Katherine Mallen Kupferer, "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret") life is spent with her best friend Callie Bell (Chloe Coleman, "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves"), the most talented and one of the most popular girls in high school, whose mom Helen (Sophie Okonedo, "Hotel Rwanda," "Janet Planet") Minnie gravitates towards while dismissing her own mother, Barbara (Tara Mallen, "Ghostlight"). But while Minnie basks in the reflected light of the Bell family, she's overlooked by almost everyone else who regard her as a "Mouse."
Laura's Review: A-
Codirectors Kelly O'Sullivan, who also wrote the screenplay, and Alex Thompson ("Saint Frances," "Ghostlight") have assembled a terrific cast to support their flawed heroine's coming of age story, one which encompasses heartbreaking loss, an intergenerational friendship and a revelatory breakthrough. But while the main focus falls on Kupferer and Okonedo, it is supporting player Mallen whose performance sneaks up on you, the actress creating a character of boundless compassion.
The film begins in media res, a girl turning her light on and off from an upstairs bedroom window, a signal to a group of boys who respond by tping her house before doing the same, on a lesser scale, to a far more modest brick ranch. Minnie will explain to her exasperated mother that the toilet papering is a 'sign of respect,' one which we will deduce has been given her as the best friend of Callie, the girl in the more prestigious looking home. Minnie lives in Callie's shadow, as the high school junior behind the camera as Callie and her boyfriend Brad (Beck Nolan, TV's 'Widow's Bay') act as school news anchors and the enthusiastic audience to Callie's star turns in drama teacher Mr. Murdaugh's (David Hyde Pierce, TV's 'Frasier') productions. And when Minnie and Callie hang out at a local swimming spot, we also deduce that Minnie feels more than friendship for Callie, who appears oblivious to her friend's romantic yearnings.
One day as Minnie is walking home from her job at a Chuck E. Cheese-like establishment, a stranger running past yells out 'You're Callie's friend, right? Just wanted to say sorry.' Minnie immediately changes course, arriving at Callie's house to a crowd of people who tell her her friend was killed after driving into a pole, Callie's devastated mom arriving to be led into the house by her husband Mark (Christopher R Ellis, "The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain"). At the funeral, Minnie will sit simmering as a slide show only portrays Callie with Cara (Audrey Grace Marshall, "Echo Valley") and Brandi (Addisyn Grace Cain), Cara referring to the deceased as 'her best friend,' but when the pastor asks if anyone else would like to speak, Minnie is silent.
After being adrift for months, two things happen to shake up Minnie's world. She meets video store clerk Kat (Iman Vellani, "The Marvels"), who offers her support, and she runs into Helen while shopping for school supplies, supplies which Helen not only helps her pick out but pays for. Soon Minnie is spending most of her down time with Helen, Minnie clearly wishing she had Callie's old life, while Barbara, full of sorrow for what has happened, struggles trying to understand just what her daughter holds against her. And when Cara suggests Senior Cabaret use Callie as a 'theme,' Minnie, who cannot sing, signs up to do just that, Helen becoming her vocal coach.
Kupferer has been given a breakout role here, the young actress expressing complex emotions, jealousy living alongside generosity, envy with admiration. While her dismissive, even hateful reaction to her mother, rejected because of cramped living quarters with two dogs, cats and a young baby we will learn is not related (and most of all because Barbara isn't sophisticated and well-to-do like Helen) can be perplexing, Kupferer isn't afraid to appear unlikable in scenes with Mallen and sells the teenaged resentment. Okonedo is, of course, wonderful, Helen's grief hollowing her out, her embrace of her daughter's bestie sincere but more measured than Minnie's for her. Mallen is simply outstanding and O'Sullivan is careful to dole out her back story slowly to correspond with Minnie's slowly changing perspective. Mallen's Barbara is mother, pure and simple love for everyone around her, surprising us with a third act scene where Helen tests her sympathy. Coleman leaves behind the picture of an optimistic future talent, countered by Vellani's quirkier, romantically interested, persona. Also strong is David Hyde Pierce as the type of teacher everyone remembers for the rest of their lives.
"Mouse" is a movie of contrasts, grief vying with hopeful new relationships, mothers from opposite corners and best friends bonded since childhood yet who couldn't be more different. Everything comes together at that climactic Senior Cabaret where Minnie's fearless performance provides yet another contrast, one celebrated by Barbara for all the right reasons.
Independent Film Company releases "Mouse" in select theaters on 11/6/26, wide on 11/13/26.
