Elephants revolve around a 16-year-old girl visiting her aunt in Chicago during the summer. Maybe things turn to a different path while she is there, where that girl meets another girl and then she and her aunt challenge the race and spirit of each other in that region.
Its leisurely quality-its disinterest in "pumping" things up, its focus on the small yet vivid spaces of listening, understanding, struggle, identity-is its greatest asset.
With great delicacy, Cone metes out details about his subjects through refined dialogue and everyday behavior; this is the sort of movie that makes you feel you've befriended the characters.
Thoughtful and sensitive yet energetic and never dull, Princess Cyd is a beautiful piece of filmmaking destined to find its way onto people's lists of favourites.
While it certainly loses steam when it stretches its reach toward something grander, Princess Cyd is at its best when it focuses on the guileless intricacies of the human personality.
As comfortable to slip into as an afternoon in the sun, as satisfying as a late-night piece of cake, Princess Cyd is a jewel of a film that plumbs thematic depths far below its surface.
