Purgatory

First-time feature director Lindsay Lanzillotta has assembled a stellar cast, including J.K. Simmons (Saturday Night, TIFF ’24), Abby Elliott (The Bear), John Reynolds (Search Party), Jack Innanen (Big Mistakes) and Mary Walsh (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), who expertly navigate the drama and comedy in the 1980s-set Purgatory.

Ruby McGurrin, in her first feature film role, stars as Beatrice, a scrappy 13-year-old who’s left questioning family structures, the Catholic church, and basically everything else, after her mother chooses to take some time away from her family to find herself.

Bea is determined to reunite her parents, Parent Trap-style, while also dealing with bullies, adolescence, and a sanctimonious “good” family at her local congregation. Guided by her closest confidante, her church’s priest (Simmons), she makes bold, and sometimes inadvisable, choices as she navigates this tricky time in a young girl’s life.

The film also gives depth to the characterization of the parents. Elliott, starring as Bea’s mother Marianne, is both charming and melancholy, as she’s torn between her duties to her family and to herself, while Reynolds plays Joe, her husband, who is trying his best to keep up with Marianne and their two daughters. Purgatory is a charming, gentle, and funny film that ably joins the long list of coming-of-age dramas, like Lady Bird and Eighth Grade.

KELLY BOUTSALIS

Content advisory: bullying, coarse language