| The title Disfluency refers to speech interruptions which the lead character, Jane (Libe Barer) – a budding speech therapist, is learning about in school. It’s her final semester of university but instead of graduating, she’s on her way home. As cryptic flashbacks (which eventually become clearer) show us, nightmares inhibited her from attending class so she flunked out and her parents came to pick her up. | | 2021 (2025)
Directed by: Anna Baumgarten
Screenplay by: Anna Baumgarten
Starring: Libe Barer, Ariela Barer
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Mom Dorothy is angry with Jane, furious that she’d throw away her education, and is telling her all the things she has to do to take responsibility this summer. Dad Louis (character actor Ricky Wayne in a film-stealing, emotionally-resonant highlight performance) is obviously very worried about his daughter, so he takes the friend approach, undermining his scathing wife and keeping everything light and fun. He has to keep it light for himself otherwise he’ll breakdown in front of his scared and withdrawn daughter. He also has to keep it light for the film – a movie about trauma, that manages to keep things moving and funny despite the stress and depression the main character is experiencing.
Jane is quickly reunited with twin sister Lacey (not actually twins, they’re called Irish twins since they’re the same age and same year in school, born around 9 months apart), and Lacey’s best friends Kennedy and Dylan, and Jane’s high school crush Jordan (Dylan Arnold). It’s not hard to piece together from the friends’ conversations and the film’s flashbacks that something traumatic happened to Jane and derailed her education (and most viewers will also quickly identify what that ‘something’ is). She was otherwise a highly-motivated star student.
Jane has been told she’s not allowed to party and has to spend the summer getting her life back on track. She ends up spending her nights drinking with her and Lacey’s friends and her days bonding with a neighbour who’s a single mom after having a kid while Jane was off at school. Unbeknownst to almost everyone else, this is Jane getting her life back on track.
Through a really well-written screenplay, the film uses all of the different relationships in Jane’s life to take a multi-faceted look at her trauma and how to deal with it. While I don’t necessarily agree with the film’s resolution to Jane’s response to it, I do appreciate how it shows the messiness and complicated nature of the trauma.
What really keeps the film sparkling is how different and unique each of Jane’s relationships are. Her sister, for instance, has no problem playing it up as the incompetent, no-good, party girl, when in reality she is just as accomplished and more put together than Jane, she just doesn’t need that recognition as others do. Jane’s father is able to get her to do everything he wants her to do because he knows what joke to tell or when to stay silent to illicit the response he wants. Jane’s former high school crush and future potential boyfriend Jordan is initially really sweet towards her, he can understand that something caused her to flunk out but she obviously isn’t ready to talk about it, so he supports her silently, until her past trauma rears its ugly head and Jordan is no longer able to separate himself from her reactions. There is just so much truth in that last relationship, how a well-meaning and caring person can get a situation so wrong that they send an already crashing person deeper into a spiral of shame and regret.
Disfluency also makes use of an old childhood trauma and sign language to help bring Jane’s current life into focus. This is a lovely, well-written movie that strikes the right balance between comedy and trauma by presenting multiple relationships with great viewpoints and great actors. Ricky Wayne may be the highlight but every single actor strikes the right emotional touch. Just an all around well made indie film.
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