Sweetie

Jane Campion’s once-promising directorial career has derailed in the last decade, culminating in the unforgivable In the Cut, but the Criterion release of her 1989 debut feature Sweetie may help curb her irrelevance. Far from the high-toned literary adaptations and onanistic debacles Campion has made since The Piano won three Oscars, Sweetie is small, sharply observed and impeccably photographed. It tells the story of two battling sisters—one a monstrously egotistical borderline psychotic nicknamed Sweetie by her doting father, the other resentful of her sister and only slightly less manipulative. Campion stocks the film with wildly eccentric characters, striking compositions and a few shocking moments, plus a heartbreaking final shot that imparts an unexpected note of wistful beauty.