'Pink Skies Ahead' Review
TV-14
Runtime: 1 Hr and 34 Minutes
Production Companies: Stampede Ventures, Divide/Conquer, Foton Pictures, Glanzrock Productions
Distributor: MTV Entertainment Studios
Director: Kelly Oxford
Writer: Kelly Oxford
Cast: Jessica Barden, Marcia Gay Harden, Michael McKean, Rosa Salazar, Lewis Pullman, Devon Bostick, Odeya Rush, Evan Ross, Henry Winkler, Mary J. Blige
Release Date: May 8, 2021
MTV/POP and on Paramount+
Los Angeles, 1998. After dropping out of college and moving back home to live with her parents, Winona is diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Skeptical of her doctor’s opinion — she hasn’t had a panic attack, after all — Winona carries on with her wild lifestyle. Only when things begin to truly unravel around her does she reluctantly decide to see a therapist and face her truths.
One of my film-related pet peeves is watching characters with an arrested development complex who just can’t get their shit together. Usually, the format centers around a man-child or someone who has hit their midlife crisis but rarely does it focus on characters who have transitioned from adolescence into their twenties. We’ve seen the mid-twenties before — recently with Pete Davidson’s The King of Staten Island. Canadian author-turned-screenwriter/director Kelly Oxford’s debut feature Pink Skies Ahead might be the first film centered around a protagonist stuck in stunted adulthood that I can personally relate to.
Oxford’s Pink Skies Ahead offers an authentic and realistic look at a young woman stuck in a relatable quarter-life crisis that hits pretty close to home. After dropping out of college at the age of 20 due to the amount of pressure, Winona (Barden) moves back home with her parents and lives a carefree lifestyle in California with her friends. She still has check-ups with her childhood pediatrician (Henry Winkler) instead of visiting an appropriate doctor for her age group. She gets high at home by herself all the time, never redecorated her childhood room, overshares on dates, can’t pass her driver’s test, and is simply coasting by with her privilege. Her entire world is turned upside down when her parents tell her they’re selling their lavish house and getting an apartment, but she’s not included in their plan.
What I love about Winona as a character is seeing her mindset and the emotional transitions that come with reaching your twenties. Once you reach your twenties, you become more conscious about the world and yourself, so you handle certain situations differently than you would’ve in your teens. At that age, anxiety is immediately unlocked as if it’s a new power-up ability in a video game… and it hits Winona like a truck. Life tests her resolve to see how far she can go before her first inevitable panic attack. Despite never experiencing a panic attack before, anxiety rushes to her at the slightest inconvenience in such a raw, honest manner.
Since the film takes place in the late ‘90s — long before anxiety was accepted as a plausible disorder — it bears a timely depiction of the situation. I don’t necessarily like vignette-style storytelling, but it works well in this movie because it aligns you with Winona’s mindset. Through her screenplay and direction, Kelly Oxford handles this in-between stage in a young woman’s life incredibly well. Winona doesn’t know exactly what she wants to do with her life even though she’s smart and has options, but she’s overwhelmed by the weight of everything, which causes her to coast/procrastinate. Oxford does a great job establishing the obstacles her lead faces at a very crucial point in her life so you can emotionally follow when and where that inevitable panic attack could hit.
Jessica Barden delivers a standout, confident, and captivating performance. She does a great job depicting the rebellious, edgy, but charming attitude that perfectly matches the era in which this takes place. She mostly carries the film on her own, but the dynamic she shares with the supporting actors elevates her performance. I like the chemistry she has with her parents, played by Marcia Gay Harden and Michael McKean. I also enjoy the scenes Winona has with her pediatrician, played by Henry Winkler. Needless to say, Winkler is just a brilliant body of endless charm, so seeing him portray a friendly pediatrician feels so right. Some of the best comedic moments come from the scenes they share. But man, the way that Barden accurately depicts anxiety is phenomenal. She made me have an anxiety attack as I watched her have a panic attack. She’s that stellar.
While I do think Pink Skies Ahead is great as far as character studies go, it’s also lacking in certain narrative areas. There’s a middling subplot where Winona suspects her dad is cheating on her mom with another woman at work. It doesn’t add much to the story and, for a rather short movie that feels refreshing in every other angle, it’s definitely the weakest component of the film. Heck, while the dynamic between Winona and her family is well executed, it stays at surface level and fails to explore anything significant. Instead, the narrative focuses on Winona and the romantic relationship she shares with an older medical student. While it’s effective for her arc, the film could’ve been drawn out a bit longer than its 94-minute runtime to go more in-depth with Winona’s family considering how impactful the intended emotions are for the film’s climax.
Also… Mary J. Blige is in this movie. Guess what her role is. Your first guess is probably right. I, for one, am tired of the Black therapist trope in TV and film. I’m just gonna air this out there: stop giving Black women the therapist role. It’s just a “magical negro” trope that’s been modernized and disguised.
All in all, Kelly Oxford’s Pink Skies Ahead is an enjoyable, funny, relatable, and well-written slice-of-life about a person in their early twenties trying their best to get their shit together. It depicts a raw and accurate depiction of anxiety — a human attribute that doesn’t get much attention in films of this nature.
