Held aloft by a superb ensemble cast and the standout performances of Lily Rabe and Timothée Chalamet, Julia Hart’s Miss Stevens is a delicate journey of healing, as complex as a newly unfurled flower in spring.
Life is full of moments that shake our very foundations. Sometimes these moments are filled with positivity and hope; sometimes, they are filled with sadness and despair. However, one thing remains true: these moments are unavoidable as we navigate life’s maze. For twenty-nine-year-old High School teacher Miss Stevens (Lily Rabe), her life is caught in the undercurrents of one of those life-changing moments. On the outside, Miss Stevens is attempting to keep everything together as she teaches English to a bunch of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds. However, her passion has become a distraction; inside, Miss Stevens feels lost, and her life feels as barren as the deserts surrounding her small home in Southern California.
Sometimes, Miss Stevens’ internal pain comes out for all to see, from a classroom discussion about the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, where she states that “We’re all locked up in some way,” to her slowly increasing use of alcohol as a social crutch. Miss Stevens needs an escape, comfort, and someone willing to listen as she navigates a crossroads many of us reach as our twenties come to an end. However, sometimes, the person who can promote healing is the one we least expect. For Miss Stevens, a road trip to a drama competition in California with three of her students in tow — Margot (Lili Reinhart), Sam (Anthony Quintal), and Billy (Timothée Chalamet) — will bring two opposing worlds into collision on the road to healing.
The delicate screenplay by Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz draws on their own experiences in the education system, and that realism shines through Miss Stevens’ journey. Here, the teacher is the student, and the student is the teacher, as the preset boundaries of engagement blur. Anyone who has worked with older teens will recognise Miss Stevens’ dilemma as she navigates engagement barriers while attempting to inspire and encourage. Central to this uneasy journey of healing is Billy (Chalamet), a boy who is lost and confused as he tries to navigate his ADHD, his meds blocking his feelings while his passion for acting and performance sets them free.
Billy finds someone just as lost as he is in Miss Stevens, a kindred spirit who needs a hug. However, Billy cannot yet distinguish between his need to help Rachel heal and the urge to engage in a physical relationship. In a moment of hurt, rejection, and frustration, Billy says, “I don’t know why you asked me to leave; you were sad again, and I knew how to fix it.” Rachel instead reaches out to a married teacher who is also in attendance for comfort, leading to a disappointing sexual encounter that only deepens her disconnect. But when Rachel briefly drops her barriers during a moment of weakness, it’s Billy who provides the healing connection she needs, only for her to erect a wall between them again that Billy neither understands nor accepts.
Held aloft by a superb ensemble cast, and the standout performances of Lily Rabe and Timothée Chalamet, Julia Hart’s delicate journey of healing has all the complexity of a newly unfurled flower in spring. In Miss Stevens, we get an honest, engaging snapshot of a moment in time when everything changes, boundaries are tested, and a tentative new beginning comes into view.
For Miss Stevens, this short road trip will reaffirm her love of teaching and allow her to grieve through an unlikely connection. At the same time, for Billy, it’s a road trip where the teacher-student barrier is momentarily breached, allowing two people to find a human connection. After all, as Billy states, “Just because people are the people you’re supposed to talk to doesn’t mean you can talk to them.” While true, Rachel is also clear in her duties and the barriers they represent, despite the healing a young man on the verge of adulthood provides. This is a road trip neither Rachel nor Billy will ever forget, the end of one chapter and the start of another as two unlikely souls briefly converge before separating forever.
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