We could all learn something from the resiliency of youth. Young people face things head-on in ways that should make adults and parents take note, so why do we become so hesitant as we get older? Perhaps we assume that thinking things over is how we should consider our problems, but young adults will be moving on to the next thing by the time we make a fully formed decision. Lara Everly’s Selah celebrates many things, including the ways that teens confront problem solving while also acknowledging that one’s personal choice doesn’t negate someone else’s decision. Oh, and there’s a fluffy dog right at the center of everything.
Everly’s film centers on the determination of Birdie Silverstein’s title character, a 17 year old who jumps at the chance to deliver a designer puppy from Texas to California entirely on her own. Her mother, played by Milana Vayntrub, is against her daughter driving so far without her, but it feels like Selah needs to do this. Is there something that she is not telling her mom? Everly’s film sustains a lightness that most filmmakers would push too hard, but Selah is very measured and level. We know we are hurtling toward something, but we aren’t sure what.
“I was definitely thinking about the balance and finding the nuance,” Everly admits. “The dog is very much an accidental metaphor, but it winds up affirming her decision. As much as Selah has the capability to fall in love with this dog, she isn’t at the age where she can take care of something so young and vulnerable and entirely dependent on her. I love approaching unexpected or uncomfortable topics through the lens of humor. It’s how I metabolize life, like I compose my own heart through comedy, and it feels like very organic care. I think comedy sneaks past people’s defenses, so instead of coming at some of these advocacy-laden stories didactically and medicinally, people can get disarmed when they laugh. When that serotonin is released in their brain, they remember. You can connect with another human first when you’re entertained.”
It’s fair to assume that just because a young person is determined that they will still face challenges along the way. Selah doesn’t have a dog, and she has to bond and then transport this pup a considerable distance while keeping an eye on finances and checking in with her mother. Everly knows that Selah is learning about herself as she drives on this literal journey.
“I do think she grows up on this trip,” she admits. “At the beginning of the film, we hear her name being said twice and then, at the end you hear her name being said twice again. She can suddenly hear her name in a different way, and instead of being dismissive and instead of thinking that her mom is just low-key religious…there’s a beauty in the in-between. It’s everything before and after. Maybe Selah thought that she had a weird name, but, by the end, she can appreciate that this is who she is. She can be locked more into her identity and come to realize that her name is a gift. Her mother gave her that name for a reason. This dog does let her grow up. This hilarious, furry, five-pound creature proves that life lessons come in strange and funny packages.”
Silverstein shares the same age as the character she plays and Everly explains why that casting decision was key in helping us understand and connect with her.
“It was important that we cast authentic to Selah’s age–we cast a 17 year old to play a 17 year old,” she says. “To be honest, we ran with a lot of things that Birdie [Silverstein] did organically, and there’s a lot of things about her performance that felt stripped down since she’s not a trained actor. I think it was important for the audience to be able to attach themselves to her, like she could be their daughter or their cousin or their friend or their sister. There’s not a second of this film that she’s not in.”
There comes a moment when Selah knocks on the door of the couple she is delivery this dog to, and I couldn’t help but think about the tension in her decision to give up the dog. This gay couple are grateful and they offer her the chance to say goodbye on her terms, and we feel something deeper at play. This might be one of the first times that this young woman has to let something go.
“I think that’s where all the hard, twisted emotions of any decision land–no decision is ever just cut and dry,” Everly says. “Every decisions has many colors and layers, and even if you’re confident that you’re making the right choice, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. Or that there isn’t love or loss or grief. There’s always some layer of when you choose something, you have to let something go. When Selah hands over of the dog, she is letting go or another life or another path, and, with that, comes grief or sadness. She loves the dog, but she knows it’s the right choice. There’s heartache.”
Without giving too much away about the film, I asked Everly about the conversations Selah and her mother might have after they are reunited. She assures me that it will be a positive reconnection.
“It was important to me that we showed two different women and how they made two very different choices in their life,” she says. “There is some friction between them, but they love each other very much.”
