User reviews

I Believe in Unicorns, is a nice starting point for director Leah Meyerhoff (it's her first feature film). It has a great leading performance by Natalia Dyer, interesting usage of stop motion animation representing the memories and imagination of the movie's leading girl and an interesting twist on the generally familiar myth of the unicorn. On the other hand, it's not as original as its creator believe, and it has a big problem with the pacing and a smaller problem of the potentially loaded relationship between Davina and her mother, to which the director keeps implying but never really explores, while she does explore the relationship between the young lovers whose direction is figured out long before the movie get's there. When an 80 minutes movie feels too long, it means the director has a problem. Still, for her feature film debut Leah's command of the media is impressive, there's every likelihood she'll get the pace better next time.

While most of the reviews here give this movie high scores, the overall score of 6.1, as shown on the main page, as I write this, is far more accurate. The scores of "10" that some people gave here is an insult to the great films of Kubrick, Scorsese, Coppola, and many others. A "10" means a film is perfect; this doesn't even come close to meeting that standard.

I suspect this movie is more than a bit autobiographical, since Leah Meyerhoff cast her own mother as the mother in the film. I'll give Toni and Leah Meyerhoff credit for that; it must be hard for a person with a disability to appear in a film playing themselves. I would have given the film 5 stars if not for that.

But beyond that, the film is too artsy, and far too pretentious. The stop-action animation didn't add anything to the film, in my opinion. In fact, I saw it as a way to cover up the thin writing in the script. The thin writing was further shown by the run time of the movie: 1 hour and 18 minutes. Mercifully short.

Hopefully teen girls watching this might learn a lesson about falling in love with a boy simply because he is cute. But probably not; if anything, they will emulate the lead girl in the film because they think this film is showing them a step they need to go through as part of the maturing process. I hope that isn't true.

Anyway, the movie is a quick little diversion, but nothing with any deep significance or value. I see it as a vanity project on the part of the writer/director, nothing more.

I am a guy, so I am not the target audience for this picture, because girls are. I dont necessarily dislike girly pictures, but this movie is nothing else but a total girly picture, without ever being really funny or really dramatic.

The good: beautiful photography. Good acting. Gentle, lovely story about a girl's first true love.

The bad: no real drama, no real spark or punch, it's all quite lovely and beautiful artsy to watch for sure, but lovely is all there is to it and I am definitely missing some real drama. But hey, I am a guy, and as I said before, I am not the audience this movie was made for. So take my review with a grain of salt, many other (female) reviewers loved this movie...

I Believe in Unicorns is a poetic and deeply intimate film. Its greatest achievement is how it conveys the loss of innocence as a teenage girl discovers womanhood/independence through a road-trip with her boyfriend. However, this newly discovered freedom seems to be just as disturbing as the home life she seeks to escape. Meyerhoff depicts through stop- motion and an effusive color-palette the POV/Internal life of our main character--Davina. There are unicorns, knights, princesses--it's a narrative of mythology to describe how her childlike internal world is trying to make sense of the looming chaos of her adult life.

This film does not depict the empowerment of love but is a cautionary tale for the relationships we chase when we are looking to escape our circumstances. And through this cyclone, we see Davina's mythological internal world crumble as her external one transforms.

This film is sophisticated and confident in its approach. It commits to one story/character- rather then a feature aiming to dizzy us with a multitude of sub-plots. The two stories can arguably be distilled to Davina's romance with Sterling and the adventures of her mythological internal world. As a result, you leave feeling you know this person like a best friend or a lover. (A testament to Natalia Dyer's acting).

This is a treat given cinema's ever-growing plague of saccharin and one-dimensional female characters. What you learn about Davina is not just magical--but it is terrifying. And the fact that Meyerhoff gives us such a close portrait of a teenage girl is nothing short of daring (things don't just boil down to getting the romantic interest and being happy--there is nightmare that looms from even chasing one)--from first sexual encounters (the squeaky awkwardness) to finding true love for an imaginary princess. This wide spectrum exists in Davina. I only look forward to meeting more of the characters Meyerhoff brings to life.

All teenage girls need to see this I Believe in Unicorns. Or for that matter, anyone who ever was a teenage girl needs to. Leah Meyerhoff somehow manages to capture the human condition so perfectly in this film. It shows the ugly little details of life and relationships that nobody bothers to do in most movies and leaves you with a gut wrenching feeling (but in a good way). That's what really sets it apart.

Natalia Dyer gives an extremely brave performance as Davina, a 16 year old girl juggling school, taking care of her mother with MS, and a new relationship with Sterling (Peter Vack), an older "bad boy". Sterling starts out as her "unicorn", but that starts to change as they become closer.

It's also beautifully shot, some of it on 16mm film which gives it a vintage, timeless feel. There is no use of modern technology throughout the entire film, which leaves you guessing whether it took place in the present day or some magic era that never existed. The stop motion sequences make it whimsical and fantastical.

The film is beautiful and innovative, though I couldn't help but feel disturbed that the parents of the 16 year old actress allowed her to be in scenes where she's so graphically raped and sexualized. I literally felt just as disturbed and distracted by this as I was affected by the film itself.

This could be because I know people who were sexually abused as children, and I've worked with child actors who later look back at that graphic kind of exposure and ultimately see it as detrimental to them and their lives. I think it's unfortunate and premature to expose a such a young actor to this.

The only two good things about this were the acting and the visuals. Other than that, the film doesn't have much to offer other than looking like an artsy-fartsy 14 year-old's photography project.

When I first saw "I Believe in Unicorns" I was immediately struck by its power; completely enamored by its sheer beauty and the importance of its narrative. What specifically struck me was how unabashedly truthful it is, unapologetically entreating us to understand a young girl's plight for serenity and what that may mean. Its pendular narrative dances between fantasy and reality revealing how a girl copes and ultimately accepts the brutalities and pain of the world in which she lives; rightfully redefining the "coming of age" genre entirely. The film really spoke to me, and I believe it to be a must see for every woman of any age.

This is an honest, well-composed film with a unique style.

I Believe in Unicorns takes you in to the mind of a teenager as she struggles with what life has given with her. It shows her inner turmoil and hopes using fantastic imagery. And even though it is full of imagination, it presents a realistic picture of this young lady's life. It does not offer some "great solution" to life's problems. Instead,it shows the pain of growing up and facing the world for what it is - often disappointing and not all we wish it could be.

Though it is definitely geared towards a female audience, if you understand that film is an art form and not an amusement park ride - whether you are male or female - you will enjoy this coming of age picture. Try it out. It's worth it.

I Believe in Unicorns is a poignant, down-to-earth look at the complications of coming of age and young love. Having first seen this film when I was in my early teens, it emotionally affected me on a personal level and has carried with me throughout my high school years.

One of the film's strongest points is its aesthetic beauty. With gorgeous cinematography and inventive use of stop-motion, the film visually carries along like a dream, or somebody's hazy, nostalgic memories of a summer long ago. It sinks us deeper into Davina's fantasy world and lets us see the world through her naive, rose-colored glasses. Anybody who's a fan of cinematography will adore this movie.

Davina is an interesting character- shy and naive, perfectly portrayed by Natalia Dyer. She's caught up in her own fantasy world, which blinds her from the truth of her prince charming, Sterling. He becomes increasingly violent, up until the film's explosive end. The film doesn't shy away from showing Sterling gradually take advantage of Davina's naivety and purity, and we're given a raw, realistic look at abuse and the rough waters of youth. We're taught a cautionary tale along with Davina, and this film is an essential watch for any teenager.

Leah Meyerhoff's transcendent, visceral, intimate examination of a young girl's heart- wrenching coming of age left me breathless. From the fanciful, fairy daydreams to the recklessness of adolescence, I felt like I was watching something from my own head. The fierce beauty of the world as seen through a girl's eyes. The understated poignancy of simple gestures, glances between mother and daughter. The ache for the exquisite: sunlight dancing in leaves, the bridge of a lovers nose. It's so rare to see a woman give life to what is inside her. We feel like we have to ask permission, and even when "granted", we play it safe, we give other people what we think they want. But Meyerhoff's unapologetic passion and ambition is empowering for women filmmakers everywhere. Her film is necessary and important, as is she.

Experience, indeed, defies representation or articulate expression. Just as a photograph only captures one shot of a smooth manifold aggregate of lived phenomena, so language can only restrictedly encapsulate vibrancy. But one'd hope that a sequence of such photographs enables one to peer into that share of moments, brightening up memory and trajectories of thoughts, absorbing anew the cultivating spectrum of lived emotions. Breathe.

The opening credits alone immediately capture the spirit of this pure coming-of-age masterpiece. Ignoring the excusable whiny music, it alone was already so great and lingering that one'd want to stop and muse. Submergence into water necessitates the synergy of the liquid water's flows with the likewise fluid and variedly current half-obscured memories of growth intertwined with decay. Stopping for an instance, retreating below the surface, divine Davina feels the impact of the past. It's her birthday, but she's not yet ready to face it. Brooding on the past can perhaps help, before lurching further into uncertain future terrains, that will eventually also continually expand the mind's horizons.

Film itself captures the process. An acoustic-visual artificial succession of events, melded with and moulded by memory, fantasy, by movements of objects that defy physical laws. Stop-motion and time-lapse show the productive capabilities of the unconscious factory, and the fragmentary apprehension of spacetime. Shades of lights correspond to different intensities. One traverses heterogenous planes, exploring natural strata, and sensing the world. The hair billows through the wind, the skateboard grinds across the concrete, the clouds, the grass, crops, trees, endless telephone wires, ... they all reverberate, grafted from their respective denotations to dance within the partial subjective perspectives, poetic experimentation and flows. Stream of consciousness.

Divine Davina is in a state of becoming. The creation of memories contrasts with the stagnancy and deterioration of her mother. Touching her mother instills stifling anxieties of death and decomposition, the limit of possibilities - "la forme et l'essence divine / De mes amours décomposés". She still has a life ahead, and hence must venture into those fairy tales and badlands.

Becoming the nomadic voyager, wandering about. Dreaming and playing. Feeling the full spectrum of emotions. The unicorn and the dragon. Multivariate and recombining flinches of desire, sadness, happiness, loneliness, abandonment, comfort, disappointment, surprise, danger, warmth, coldness, excitement, pain, pleasure, ... transitions between various intensive states and interactions with a significant other, who's active and feeling too, differently, but reciprocally, within a changeable complex relationship.

Finally one has to digest the trip, make time for thought. The past becomes another series of photographs, pages of diaries, details, conclusions, and material mementos. And then one continues on, indefinitely.

"There's so much I want to say. But I don't know where to start."

When an indie film has a profound story that tracks, actors that transcend their role and truly become their characters and move you without even having to speak, gorgeous cinematography, perfect editing, a soundtrack that accents without intruding, a look and feel that is memorable and unique, and a story that stays with you for a while after…you have a unicorn of a film. It is very rare to see a film that has stop motion animation and super 8 footage from the filmmaker's life that is not gratuitous. This film is brave, honest, and important. Leah Meyerhoff is a director to watch and I Believe in Unicorns is a film not to be missed. If you can see it in theaters, do so. It's shot entirely on film (another unicorn) by cinematographer Jarin Blaschke and therefore should be watched, if possible, in a theater.

"I Believe in Unicorns" was an outstanding movie. It had elements to it that helped to make it the movie that it is. I thought that the way it was filmed and how cut to different parts was really neat, and you sort of in a way had to put the movie together like a puzzle which I liked. I also really liked the soundtrack of "I believe in Unicorns," it matched the vibe of the movie perfectly and even added to the plot at times. "I believe in Unicorns" was quiet but the quietness of the movie helps create the perfect atmosphere and it too helps to tell a story all without even saying much. I really liked this movie and it's definitely one of my favorites.

I like this film. It has got heart, it has good intentions for the cinematic language that I so adore. I feel like the filmmaker is earnest and thoughtful with the script and the performances are very strong and show a lot of talent on her cinematic future. However, I've been following this movie online and keep seeing photos of the filmmaker, Meyerhoff at festivals. Great right? Well, yes and no. Yes, it's great the film is getting out there, it should! No because it's more that a little embarrassing to see a 38 year old woman wearing a unicorn prop on her head, as though she's so desperate to hype her film that she'll turn into a corny advertisement. Is this what cinema has come to? I should hope not, not in the cinema I know. I get it, you're supposed to do something "striking" and "wild" to stand out, but Miss Meyerhoff, if you need to walk around with a toy horn on your head to get press on your film, or to get attention, well that's just sad and pedestrian. Have some pride in yourself and your work. You are a talented filmmaker. Please take the horn off and have some respect for yourself, your collaborators and most importantly, for cinema.

Besides the corny advertising, as a critic I do recommend the film. Don't let the harsh truths discourage you. It is a VERY strong film!

I Believe in Unicorns showed the sexual passion teenagers have for each other and the easy dangers they can fall into. The ugliness at the end showed a powerful truthfulness of what can happen, a powerful warning for both male & female teenagers.

I think the movie is very good. Reminded me of the Virgin Suicides a little. The plot is strong and moves ahead confidently. I think anyone who has been a teenage girl will feel the emotion in it. The story is unique. I would like to see more of the director's movies.