TL;DR – Come for the interesting exploration of mental health and the bond of teenagers in the face of tragedy. Stay tuned for the exciting trivia about Indianapolis.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Binge service that viewed this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Turtles All the Way Down Review –

Today, we look at a film in which I had some deep trepidation before pressing play. I generally like the author’s work and have read all of his other novels; however, when I sat down to read the Turtles book, I hit a wall. There was this moment early in the book when it went from being a fictional story to being too real and personal, and I had to put the book down. And I am sorry to say, I never picked it back up again. So today, what we have is almost a second attempt for me to find a new first impression and see if I can make it further into the work than last time. Well, I have a packet of Wagon Wheels in front of me and the house smells of roast potatoes, and there is no time like the present.  

So to set the scene, we open with Aza Holmes (Isabela Merced) lamenting or musing about how 50% of the human body mass is made up of microbial entities and what that means on a philosophical level with her therapist Dr. Kira Singh (Poorna Jagannathan). Aza has OCD, which relates to how she perceives the microbial world, both within and without. When she goes to have lunch with her best friend Daisy Ramirez (Cree), they discover that Aza’s old friend Davis Pickett’s (Felix Mallard) father has gone missing, and there is a $100,000 reward.

The first thing that you see is that Aza and Daisy really feel like old friends. They have the bond that you know has been forged in the fire of adolescence and high school. It is honestly hard to fake that bond, and it has a genuine feeling that his film desperately needs. Then, there is the way that visually represents her OCD. The use of the musical score, jarring but beautiful shots of microbes, and narration happen over the top, and all work is done to punctuate these cutaways. It is honestly hard to represent an internal feeling in a visual medium when you have no anchors to latch on to, and I think this was probably the best approach.

Narratively, it takes an interesting perspective in that every character is intensely likeable but also fundamentally flawed. This is a harsh juxtaposition that you can feel being held together with duct tape waiting to rip apart. Given one of the characters comes from billions, it says a lot that you care for everyone. It is humanity that becomes the throughline upon which the rest of the film hangs. How strength and support can come even when it is mixed with frustrations. That love is good, even when it can be a struggle; indeed, life is a struggle, but it is still worth it. I liked that it showed the role that therapy can be but also does not shy away from it being an easy fix.

From a production perspective, the film is perfectly fine. The visuals do everything they needed with the added texture of the microbial cutaways. There is a good mix of needle drops and the musical soundtrack, with an effective use of Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy. The pacing is quite good, even if you can feel it jumping over parts of the novel. The ending does feel a bit odd, not bad, but odd, uplifting and sad at the same time. I feel that it does do an excellent job of showing the spiral that can come with OCD, even if I didn’t need to know as much about cows as I now do. It was a bit too convenient at times; you could see some plot points coming a mile away, and I would like to see more Judy Reyes because it is Judy Reyes. But other than that, I think it worked well       

In the end, do we recommend Turtles All the Way Down? Well, it was a tough film to watch at times, and it won’t be for everyone. However, I was engaged the entire time, and it felt like it captured real people that I did care for. If you liked Turtles All the Way Down, we would recommend to you Jasper Jones.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Turtles All the Way Down?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Turtles All the Way Down
Directed by – Hannah Marks
Screenplay by – Elizabeth Berger & Isaac Aptaker
Based on – Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Music by – Ian Hultquist
Cinematography by – Brian Burgoyne
Edited by – Andrea Bottigliero
Production/Distribution Companies – Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Temple Hill Entertainment, Rojas Green Production, Binge & Max
Starring – Isabela Merced, Cree, Felix Mallard, Maliq Johnson, Poorna Jagannathan, J. Smith-Cameron & Judy Reyes with Miles Ekhardt, Tim Gooch, Jason Kientz, Hannah Marks, Rico Romalus Parker, Debby Ryan & John Green
Rating – Australia: M; United States: PG-13