Continue 2024 Movie Review
If it feels as though the opening scenes of Continue are putting you through a test to see if you’re tough enough, curious enough and empathetic enough to stick with a brutally honest film about a suicidal young woman, you aren’t alone.
There’s nothing easy about the loud, bloody, unsettling onslaught of writer-director Nadine Crocker’s drama, which she based on her own experiences. There’s also nothing coincidental about the timing of the film’s release – September is Suicide Prevention Month. We owe Crocker thanks for using her artistic voice to promote awareness and action.
Not that this is a didactic public service announcement: Continue never strays far from the opening’s kinetic power, from another shoe dropping. But intensity works best as a contrast with other emotions, and the film is an intricate tapestry of them.
Continue focuses on Dean (Crocker), who ends up in a treatment center – against her will – after a horrendous suicide attempt. She doesn’t respond to her psychiatrist, Janet (Emily Deschanel), but another patient, Bria (Analiegh “Lio” Tipton) – a wry and playful heroin aficionado – cracks her shell, and they become friends. Gradually, Dean’s new framework of recovery expands to include alluring Taryn (Annapurna Sriram), smitten Trenton (Shiloh Fernandez) and Dean’s estranged sister, Bennett (Kat Foster).
Some of the themes here – rage, resistance, realization, relapse, remorse, refocusing – are familiar from other films about suicide and other forms of depression, but Crocker plays with them in fresh, convincing ways. She couldn’t have found a better actor than herself to play the main character, but as the director she gives the supporting cast showcase vignettes as well. Tipton, Fernandez and Deschanel are standouts. There’s also a hint of a Tennessee tip-of-the-hat from the Nashville-born director (whose character reveals that she’s from Nashville). Foster grew up in Nashville, and Knoxville-born-and-raised Dale Dickey, the beloved veteran character actor, has a sweet supporting role as Nurse Love.
Continue earns empathy with its characters’ interactions and discoveries, and it brings the complexities of mental health to the forefront with caring. The messages show more than tell, which is a beauty of cinema. One of the most emphatic, though, is one that bears repeating: Life is hard. There’s nothing wrong with asking others to help you.
