'Pure O' Review: Truly a Pure Experience [SXSW 2023]
Often Festival Films Can overload its audience with drama, emotion, or ham-fisted messages, but in a delightfully subtle film, ‘Pure O’ makes you candidly connect with the characters and the plot.
There are always lessons to be learned. I strive for that motto in life as a teacher, a father, and someone who would like to consider himself open to compassion and understanding. Please hold your applause for me, I’m not up for Sainthood just yet. What I have learned in my middle-aged years is that often the lessons in life that stick with you come in unexpected ways, or when you least suspect. ‘Pure O’ became one of those little unexpected moments.
It is why we cherish film festivals, we as movie-goers get a chance to see films that we connect with, that resonate with us on a life-affirming level. The story is brought to us by writer/director Dillon Tucker, whose catharsis we experience first hand is the major reason the film will undoubtedly reach whomever will watch it.
‘Pure O’ follows an aspiring screenwriter/musician, Cooper (Daniel Dorr) who grapples with an aptly named condition known as Pure O, in fact, a lesser-known form of OCD. Cooper has to juggle his recent engagement and his day job as a counselor at a Malibu drug rehab center. Tucker’s semi-autobiographical story (again, speaking as a teacher) is an excellent lesson. It makes the somewhat difficult to understand Pure O condition a little more simplified, and that was apparently the reason behind Tucker’s drive to make this film.
He also wanted to aim for realism, which again, can be a trap that many filmmakers fall into, especially when we’re talking about your stereotypical small-budget festival film. Dillon has said he “wanted to create a world where you didn't know where the real life started and where the acting started. I wanted it to all kind of rub up against each other but I really wanted to provide agency to my actors to come in and to bring themselves as much as possible”. His method? Hire real people for the major counselling scenes. Real people who suffer from real mental health issues. It’s to be commended, as a balance needs to be found when directors want to use ‘real people’. They have to ensure it doesn’t become too documentary like if it’s a fictionalized narrative, and they also have to ensure that the real people and the actors are all on the same page, delivering the same message. Dillon should be commended for that skill as a director, as well.
The film and its premise doesn’t necessarily sound as if it would be a raucous good time, or even an optimistic film, I realize. Surprisingly, it revealed itself to be one of the most topical, poignant and hopeful films I have seen in a longtime. The characters and their struggle are relatable and Tucker’s writing has a good-natured and tender sensibility. It is a story about the connections we make and the strength we find through discussing mental health issues. We find strength within, and we find strength with others who may share the affliction. In a sense, the film is Tucker passing notes in class to his classmate… the one he notices is struggling day to day. The note simply reads “you’re not alone”.
Don’t get me wrong, the film deals with extremely difficult topics. Mental illness aside, the film deftly addresses hard issues such as family illness, death, and abortion. Yet it is the raw manner in which the film deals with these subjects which make it worthwhile. Very rarely have I thought that something can be raw and optimistic, as often the ‘raw’ aspect will have a film lean too heavily on over dramatizing the subject matter, but again, Tucker, the script, and the film itself finds that balance. The film at no point feels too heavy, and with so much heaped on to the main characters at time, it could have easily been a film that weighed the audience down as well. This includes the time within the film where the young couple have to deal with illness within the family as well as their own problems.
As mentioned before, the cast was certainly on the same page as Tucker, and that drives the film in the direction and finds that aforementioned balance. Dorr is extremely affable and charming. There are some real moments of tenderness, love and joi de vivre between Dorr’s Cooper, and his fiancé Emily (Hope Lauren), more than likely because Dorr and Lauren are partners in real life as well. Their relationship is sweet, yet somewhat fragile, making the crucial final act even more bittersweet. Every actor seemingly becomes their character, which once again, in turn, helps to educate the audience rather merely dramatize events. Tucker is masterful at showcasing the force and potency of Pure O, but it is only through the partnership of Cooper’s sympathetic character, and Dorr’s creation of a loveable ‘everyman’.
It was also strange how much the film sucked me in throughout the screening. It was slow at first, but by the end of the film I found myself utterly invested. There is absolutely something to be said about how anyone can become more invested in a story if the person telling it is passionate about the subject. Tucker wrote, directed, edited, and likely catered ‘Pure O’, and you could tell he gave it his all. You could tell it was an important story for him, and therefor it became important to the actors, which in turn made it important to you. And on top of it all, as Cooper is also an aspiring musician, Tucker went ahead and created originally songs for the film. Why not? His songs mirror the film itself. There are waves of beauty, waves of sadness, and an eventual crescendo that leaves you spiritually inspired and emotionally satisfied. I haven’t seen any of Tucker’s other work, and who knows if I ever will, but if this is the one film he’s created, I can’t imagine he left anything on his plate. He bared it all, and gave us, the audience, everything.
This film is topical and enthralling. Anyone who suffers from mental illness, or perhaps wants to understand someone going through a very specific condition will ‘get’ this film. In actuality though, anyone can ‘get’ this film because of it’s personal story and approachability, and it teaches all of us a lesson in humanity. It was a hidden gem of this particular SXSW festival, and I hope more people get an opportunity to see it.