McKenzie's mercurial performance is the centerpiece of this sad, surprisingly absorbing story.
50
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
Kuryla has her prole banter down, and moments like McKenzie's desperate dance on her jalopy hood when Turturro locks her out move beyond literary sting into kinetic and sympathetic gutter picaresque.
50
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Though the whole of Freak Weather is too forced and fitful, significant stretches of the movie hold together. McKenzie gives a magnetic performance.
Like its heroine, Freak Weather is courageous but disorganized; its loopy, screwball tone feels at odds with the gravity of the scenes of chaos and violence it depicts.
Director-screenwriter Kuryla displays some talent and an audaciously daring sensibility but ultimately fails to display the assured cinematic style that would make the unsavory proceedings more palatable.
Fiction writer and debuting helmer Mary Kuryla is clearly after a Big Statement on abuse and strength of character, but falls short by creating a self-destructive monster in lieu of a sympathetic protagonist.