How do you give a little joy to one of the saddest places on earth? If you are AL (Samantha Smart), you carry a ukulele and wings it every day. A Internal music therapist At a children’s hospital in Texas, she spends her days trying to entertain children who may or may not know that they die while lending an ear to the parents who navigate their darkest hours. Every day, her information can include everything from singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to five-year-olds to searching for a rap song that can get a sick teen to crack a smile.
She would be the first to tell you to cheer up the five -year -olds is a much easier task. When she meets 17-year-old Charlie (Gabriela Ochoa Perez), the teenager wants nothing to do with music therapy. After spending three years in hospital and convinced that everyone refuses to tell her that she is dying, Charlie believes that she has permanently lost her taste for diversions. Al accepts the challenge of tying with the girl, meeting her where she is with playful adult conversations and gradually building a friendship that changes her forever.
It’s … the whole movie. And that’s excellent.
The beauty of ”Charliebird“Written by Smart and directed by Libby Ewing and won US narrative jury award at 2025 Tribeca Festivalis how little it is trying to do. Whole film is built around the remarkable chemistry between its two main actresses, with Smart who are associated with incredible empathy and sensitivity, and Perez gradually reveals the smart, fun teenage personality that her health has never allowed her to show. Large plot points are minimal, as the film simply offers us some beautiful snapshots of a short season for two lives. The dark reality is that every hospital stay can only have two possible finishes, one happy and the other tragic. “Charliebird” explores both results before they sit on one, but it is more focused on the way to get there.
Another strength is the film’s honest attitude to a topic like music therapy. Al is genuinely devoted to his profession and sees that you put smiles on the faces of sick children as a cold. And the film depicts some adorable moments with children and behind the scenes drama showing how seriously the adults take it. But Smart and Ewing never indulge in the temptation to present it as a magical step in the healing process, or to uncritically claim that art saves lives. This kind of transmitted strategy would have earned them lots of ovations at the festival Q & AS, but it would have overshadowed one of the film’s strongest ideas: that music therapy is often a small distraction from inevitable tragedies that are not all ready to appreciate.
Of course, it is not to say that it is not worth doing. Much of the excitement, which of course comes out of the film’s simple plot revolves around the question of how much a tragic situation can really be improved. And while “Charliebird” never shoots away from the gloom of fate waiting for everyone, all smiles and laughter in Kinematographer Luca del Puppo’s narrow pillbox frames are clear where the film is at the value of maximizing the days we have. Some problems are not solid, but some moments may be eternal if you create a sufficiently strong memory.
Rating: B+
“Charliebird” premiered at 2025 Tribeca Festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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