Charlie Harper

What should we do with our happy memories when they’re inextricably linked to ones that cause us pain? That’s the central question of Charlie Harper, a charming love story by first-time filmmakers Mac Eldridge and Tom Dean.

The complicated relationship between Charlie (Nick Robinson, TIFF ’20’s Shadow In The Cloud) and Harper (a terrific Emilia Jones, star of the Oscar-winning CODA) unfolds in a non-linear way, illustrating the shifts in how they relate to one another over time. We check in at several points in their life together: when they first meet as teenagers exchanging mixtapes, regrouping after high school graduation, and leaving their small Florida town together for a bigger life in New Orleans.

The two have an undeniable connection, but cracks quickly start to show. There’s a lived-in authenticity to their recurring arguments. Harper, ambitiously pursuing a culinary career, is frustrated by Charlie’s listlessness. He feels condescended to when she asks him to consider taking a college course or cutting back on drinking. At various points, the characters directly offer a recollection from some undefined point in the future, when it’s no longer clear what they are to each other anymore. These scenes serve as poignant reminders of the subjectivity of memory.

With a script written by co-director Dean — who also wrote the screenplay for another Festival Official Selection this year, Adam Carter Rehmeier’s Carolina Caroline — Charlie Harper marks an auspicious debut for the filmmaking duo.

CAMERON BAILEY

Content advisory: brief strobing effect, drug use, coarse language