A bittersweet film of teenagers who face illness, love and mortality

How can you make a movie about sick teenagers without the most skeptical audience accusing you of being overly optimistic? The people behind Sunny dancer choose to give the lead role to a character who is also skeptical, and angry, and understandably resentful. So the audience will discover a summer camp for young people with cancer through Ivy (Bella Ramsey), a teenager who has overcome leukemia and who did not want to go there at all. In the best of cases, the audience will accompany Ivy along a certain journey from emotionally blocked cynicism to a certain reconciliation with her own emotions and with the beauties and pains of the world.

Director George Jaques (Black dog) has signed a very decent film of situations, of characters, and of the actors who play them. A well-scripted mix of feel good movie and tear-jerker drama that also occasionally winks at the most provocative teen comedies (including the typical funny, though perhaps too self-destructive, sidekick with very dark humor). Audiovisually, the film has something vulgar about it and refers to a certain independent cinema very much in touch with advertising aesthetics: often the images exude the urgent, imperative propagandism of a motivational speech. A sort of final twist is debatable due to the thriller-like way it is depicted, but the whole piece exudes a certain competence and care... livened up by a few British pop music hits.