‘Sorry, I’m such a disappointment to you, Mum.” “We can’t all be appointments.” That’s the fumbling, poignant way of this debut comedy-drama from New Zealand director Michelle Savill, clearly a highly personal piece of work in its detailed character study of would-be architect and social-media blagger Millie, played in charmingly evasive style by Ana Scotney.
Millie has a hot ticket from Wellington to New York for an internship at a blue-chip architecture firm, but has a panic attack and disembarks before takeoff. In denial about what’s happened, and unable to admit her failure, she decides to keep up the pretence online, dropping in a cut-and-paste of an airplane window into her Instagram feed (“A new adventure begins!!!!”). And she digs herself in deeper, taking Skype calls from her friends in alleys that mimic New York brickwork and hanging around in disguise at their house party to overhear them pick fault with her.
