It’s always great to encounter a filmmaker who really grasps the importance of sound. Cory Choy, a longtime sound technician, demonstrates that understanding in his 2022 feature directorial debut ESME, MY LOVE (produced by Choy’s New York based Silver Sound studio), a powerful two-character indie that benefits immeasurably from innovative sound design accomplished by Choy himself.
Yet the film is also quite visually assured, with Terrence Malick-worthy cinematography by Fletcher Wolfe. Such skilled image making helps ferry the viewer through a narrative that for much of its length is deeply opaque.
Involved are a young woman named Hannah (Stacey Weckstein) and her daughter Esme (Audrey Grace Marshall). Hannah insists on whisking Esme away from their home to an abandoned family farm in upstate New York, allegedly because the girl is sick and needs fresh air. From the start this drama is tinged with a sense of horror, bequeathed by sound design that incorporates eerie noises and creepy undertones, and an alternately ominous and aggressive score by Charlotte Littlehales and Stephanie Griffin that on occasion is made to (deliberately) drown out the dialogue.
As Hannah and Esme’s time in the woods stretches on it becomes clear that 1). Hannah has no plans to leave this place (especially after she pushes her car into a ravine), and that 2). they aren’t alone. An angelic little girl who closely resembles Esme is seen by Hannah, while a creepy figure who recalls Hannah, albeit without eyes or a mouth, is spotted by Esme (whether those figures are real is another question entirely).
…sound design that incorporates eerie noises and creepy undertones, and an alternately ominous and aggressive score by Charlotte Littlehales and Stephanie Griffin that on occasion is made to (deliberately) drown out the dialogue.
What-all is happening, and Hannah’s true reasons for the wilderness sojourn, are eventually made clear. The explanation doesn’t entirely clear up all the enigmas, but does lead us into a third act that abandons the “slow burn” aspect so many reviewers have used to describe the film in favor of a dark exploration of power dynamics (with the mother-daughter relationship undergoing a dramatic shift) and insanity.
The script by Laura Allen is strong (thematically speaking it has much in common with 2021’s MOTHERLY), but it’s the filmmaking that resonates. As with Choi’s unorthodox use of sound, the imagery doesn’t follow any set rules, with distorted hand mirror POVs and a wild juxtaposition of close-ups and wide shots (as in an oddly impacting sequence in which Hannah teaches her daughter to swim in a lake, punctuated by close shots of the water and the surrounding vegetation).
The lead actresses are both quite strong, particularly Audrey Grace Marshall as Esme. I feel safe in calling Marshall’s turn one of the finest little girl performances in any film, recent or otherwise. Conveyed is a sense of unwilling complicity in a drama by of a character who nonetheless fits right in.
Vital Statistics
ESME, MY LOVE
Silver Sound
Director/Producer: Cory Choy
Screenplay: Laura Allen
Cinematography: Fletcher Wolfe
Editing: Emrys Eller, Ellie Gravitte
Cast: Audrey Grace Marshall, Stacey Weckstein