I Believe In Unicorns is an indie film I watched over the past weekend, written by Leah Meyerhoff and starring Natalia Dyer as the main protagonist. As expressed in the description, the film is “a road trip through the stunning and complex landscape of troubled young love.” The film follows a teenage girl who gets swept up in love and lust by her new boyfriend and her journey as she slowly starts to realize that their dynamic is toxic.
I loved the opening credit scene. I thought the stop motion animation was a nice touch, and the inclusion of home VHS tapes truly contributed a cozy and welcoming vibe. After a seemingly nice intro, the scene cuts to Davina in a bathtub visibly startled and gasping for air. She narrates the words “There’s so much to say, but I don’t know where to start.” A few minutes into the film the viewers have a pretty well established idea of Davina’s home life as well as her personality.
Davina lives at home with her wheel-chair bound mother whom she is the primary caretaker of; her father is not involved in her life. Viewers see that she does love her mother, but their relationship is strained. A prime example of this is throughout all of the dialogue between them, they only ever share one liners or silent scenes. When it’s Davina’s birthday, her mother gets her a pack of highlighters. She, of course, does not appreciate this genuinely terrible gift. On that same birthday, her friend gets her a camera which Davina uses throughout the course of the film and truly does appreciate.
As for Davina herself, she strikes viewers as very innocent, quirky, and pure. This can be seen especially in her choice of outfits; she always wears either overalls or dresses, along with numerous charm bracelets and her signature unicorn necklace. Unicorns hold a special significance to Davina; she has unicorn portraits (all over her room), jewelry, clothing and often alludes to them in her speech. However, the audience never learns why unicorns are so important to her.
One day after school, Davina spots Sterling—the typical skater bad boy trope to a “T—at a skatepark and is immediately interested— a magnetism which he reciprocates. Tall, dark messy hair, and greatest of all an air to mystery about him. He seems to be the opposite of everything Davina is: he isn’t innocent or pure and he is extremely one dimensional. This man has no character development whatsoever. They suddenly end up in a relationship and that is when things take a turn for the worse. Their motives for being together are strikingly contrasting. Davina is with him because she genuinely likes Sterling and wants a loving relationship with him, but she is too naive to see that his motives are simply to use her for her innocence. Throughout the movie, we see Davina disassociate into a fantasy where she is a unicorn running through a field. In my opinion, this represents what is going on in her mind.I feel like this is a way of her subconscious guiding her and dropping subtle hints about what might happen next if she continues on the same path, that is being with Sterling.
Towards the middle of the movie she runs away with Sterling, which is rather unrealistic. They hop motels and hang out on a farm. I have a lot of questions about this turn of events. The most obvious ones are: “How has no one tried to look for them yet?” and “Where are they getting the money to buy all of these things?” Throughout the time they spend with each other, Davina soon realizes that Sterling is very aggressive and abusive both verbally and physically. Towards the end of the film, Davina begins to register all that has happened and comes to her senses. She realizes that this is not what she wants. She badly wanted Sterling to be her “knight in shining armour,” but she ends up needing to be saved from him. In the final scene, Davina returns home and lays in the bathtub muttering the words, “There’s so much I want to say, but I don’t know where to start. Maybe when I learn to breathe, we’ll finally be able to talk”
Overall, I Believe in Unicorns was a satisfactory movie, and it deserves 3 out of 5 stars. I loved the cinematography and how it was directed. The actors felt very at ease with each other and really blended well with their characters. The only critiques I have are concerned with the storyline. I feel as if at some points it was too cliche, airbrushed, and unrealistic. I believe it is important to portray elements of realism in movies that are about topics such as this one, as this is a situation that many people fall victim to. If you’re looking for a quick, dreamy movie, then this just might be for you! Do you believe in unicorns?
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