Tahara Review: Messy Tale Of Love & Friendship Is Elevated By Its Two Leads

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In many ways, Olivia Peace's film Tahara is an ambitious project. It seeks to explore themes of sexuality, friendship, and death within its remarkably short runtime. Working off of an original script by Jess Zeidman, Peace dives headfirst into these murky areas and comes up with a movie that leaves no easy answers in its wake — and is all the more intriguing for it. Comparisons to the similarly-themed Shiva Baby are inevitable, but Tahara manages to be something very different. While some aspects might feel slight, Tahara is an engrossing coming-of-age tale bolstered by its distinctive visual style and well-matched leads.

Following the death of a fellow classmate, best friends Carrie (Madeleine Grey DeFreece) and Hannah (Rachel Sennott) find themselves attending both her funeral and a «teen talk-back» at their local synagogue. The talk-back is aimed at helping the various teens process their supposed grief, but Hannah is more preoccupied with getting the attention of Tristan (Daniel Taveras), her longtime crush. In a moment of stunning ignorance, Hannah gets Carrie to kiss her to assess her skills. For Hannah, it's a passing moment, but for Carrie, it leads to a surprising revelation that colors the rest of the agonizingly awkward talk-back.

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Tahara takes place entirely in the synagogue, which would normally run the risk of making a film feel too stagnant. Early on, though, Peace works against this by employing unique visual tricks. From weaving in animation to expanding the boxy aspect ratio during Carrie's moments of self-discovery, Peace finds creative ways to really show what the girls are thinking and feeling. Carrie gets the most