''Fairyland'' is a 2023 American
coming-of-age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
written and directed by Andrew Durham in his directorial debut. It is based on Alysia Abbott's memoir ''Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father''. The film stars
Emilia Jones
Emilia Annis I. Jones (born 23 February 2002) is an English actress. She played the lead role of Ruby Rossi in the Academy Award-winning 2021 film '' CODA''. She has received several accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and a nomi ...
,
Scoot McNairy
John Marcus "Scoot" McNairy (born November 11, 1977) is an American actor and film producer. He is known for his roles in ''Monsters'', ''Argo'', ''Killing Them Softly'', '' 12 Years a Slave'', '' Gone Girl'', and '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of J ...
,
Geena Davis
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actor ,
Cody Fern
Cody Fern (born 6 July 1988) is an Australian actor and director. Following his feature debut in ''The Tribes of Palos Verdes'' (2017), he portrayed murder victim David Madson in the FX series '' The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American C ...
,
Adam Lambert
Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Since 2009, he has sold over 3 million albums and 5 million singles worldwide. Lambert is known for his dynamic vocal performances that fuse his theatrical tra ...
and
Maria Bakalova
Maria Valcheva Bakalova, . ( ; born 4 June 1996) is a Bulgarian actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Critics' Choice Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Gl ...
.
''Fairyland'' premiered on January 20, 2023 at the
2023 Sundance Film Festival
The 2023 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 19 to 29, 2023. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 7, 2022.
Films U.S. Dramatic Competition
* ''The Accidental Getaway Driver'', directed by Sing J. Lee
* ...
.
Premise
Arriving in San Francisco very little, just after the death of her mother in a car accident in 1973, Alysia Abbott is living with her father Steve Abbott, a poet and activist who comes out as gay. Steve’s bohemian lifestyle clashes with the expectations of being a parent from both the outside world and Alysia herself, who occasionally wishes for less of the independence her father gives her. Their bonds and duty to each other are tested in painful and sudden ways. Years later, she discovers a world of artists and writers, but also the effects of the HIV/AIDS in the United States, AIDS crisis when people around her contract the virus to which her father also falls victim.
Cast
*
Emilia Jones
Emilia Annis I. Jones (born 23 February 2002) is an English actress. She played the lead role of Ruby Rossi in the Academy Award-winning 2021 film '' CODA''. She has received several accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and a nomi ...
as Alysia Abbott
** Nessa Dougherty as a younger Alysia Abbott
*
Scoot McNairy
John Marcus "Scoot" McNairy (born November 11, 1977) is an American actor and film producer. He is known for his roles in ''Monsters'', ''Argo'', ''Killing Them Softly'', '' 12 Years a Slave'', '' Gone Girl'', and '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of J ...
as Steve Abbott
*
Geena Davis
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actor as Munca
*
Cody Fern
Cody Fern (born 6 July 1988) is an Australian actor and director. Following his feature debut in ''The Tribes of Palos Verdes'' (2017), he portrayed murder victim David Madson in the FX series '' The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American C ...
as Eddie Body
* Bella Murphy as Yayne
*
Adam Lambert
Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Since 2009, he has sold over 3 million albums and 5 million singles worldwide. Lambert is known for his dynamic vocal performances that fuse his theatrical tra ...
as Charlie
* Ryan Thurston as Johnny
*
Maria Bakalova
Maria Valcheva Bakalova, . ( ; born 4 June 1996) is a Bulgarian actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Critics' Choice Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Gl ...
as Paulette
Production
In 2013, it was reported that
American Zoetrope
American Zoetrope (also known as Omni Zoetrope from 1977 to 1980 and Zoetrope Studios from 1980 until 1990) is a privately run American film production company, centered in San Francisco, California and founded by Francis Ford Coppola and Georg ...
had successfully attained the screen rights for Alysia Abbott's memoir ''Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father'', and that Sofia Coppola would adapt the book with Andrew Durham. Coppola would also originally produce the film with her brother
Roman Coppola
Roman François Coppola (born April 22, 1965) is an American director, screenwriter, producer and the son of Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola. For the 2012 film ''Moonrise Kingdom'', he and co-writer Wes Anderson were nominated for the A ...
. Durham later assumed the role of the film's sole writer and director while Coppola remained involved as a producer.
In June 2022, it was announced that production had wrapped with
Emilia Jones
Emilia Annis I. Jones (born 23 February 2002) is an English actress. She played the lead role of Ruby Rossi in the Academy Award-winning 2021 film '' CODA''. She has received several accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and a nomi ...
,
Scoot McNairy
John Marcus "Scoot" McNairy (born November 11, 1977) is an American actor and film producer. He is known for his roles in ''Monsters'', ''Argo'', ''Killing Them Softly'', '' 12 Years a Slave'', '' Gone Girl'', and '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of J ...
,
Geena Davis
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actor ,
Adam Lambert
Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Since 2009, he has sold over 3 million albums and 5 million singles worldwide. Lambert is known for his dynamic vocal performances that fuse his theatrical tra ...
,
Cody Fern
Cody Fern (born 6 July 1988) is an Australian actor and director. Following his feature debut in ''The Tribes of Palos Verdes'' (2017), he portrayed murder victim David Madson in the FX series '' The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American C ...
, Bella Murphy and Nessa Dougherty starring in an ensemble cast. In August 2022,
Maria Bakalova
Maria Valcheva Bakalova, . ( ; born 4 June 1996) is a Bulgarian actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Critics' Choice Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Gl ...
was also revealed to be appearing in the film.
Release
It premiered on January 20, 2023 at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
.
Reception
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The critics consensus reads, "Drawing on one family's real-life experiences, the powerfully acted ''Fairyland'' pays poignant tribute to love and resilience in the face of adversity and tragedy."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 68 out of 100, based on 9 reviews indicating "generally favorable reviews".
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairyland
2020s English-language films
2023 independent films
American films based on actual events
Drama films based on actual events
Films scored by Michael Penn
Films set in San Francisco
HIV/AIDS in American films
Films set in the 1970s
Films set in the 1980s