This sleek little indie is set in rural Hawai’i and features an entirely AANHPI (Asian American and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islander) cast. The story centers on an ethical dilemma that 29-year-old Misha (Mitzi Akaha) finds herself in when she starts a relationship with an 18-year-old athlete, and doesn’t disabuse him of the notion that she is a fellow high school student.
Misha is pretty directionless. She works in a movie theater box office and isn’t interested in taking the manager job her boss offers her. She lives in the house her late grandmother left to her with her cat. And as much as her friends and family think she could to a lot more with her life, she’s just fine with things as they are.
Then one day at the supermarket she meets Jake (Laird Akeo). He’s very cute and clearly interested in her. But she brushes him off, though he does learn she works at the theater and comes there to invite her to hang out with him and his friends. And she accepts, beginning a relationship that, while legal, ignores Jake’s agency. And as the two of them continue, there is a serious tension lurking behind every scene concerning when or how he will find out who he is dating.
This is a first film from writer/director Zoë Eisenberg, and she knocks it out of the park. The spark for the script came from a moment that she herself was mistaken by a 17-year-old for a high school student when she was 29, causing her to wonder what kind of woman her age might accept. But also what are the metrics by which we measure adulthood. She has written a smart script and her direction of the two central characters is very natural. Their chemistry palpable, and Misha’s growing discomfort with her omission is definitely unsettling.
This is one of those under the radar films and that’s too bad, because everyone involved has done a great job and it is a film you’ll remember long after viewing. It’s streaming now, so look for it.
Streaming now on Apple + & Prime.