James Norton and Bella Ramsey’s Sunny Dancer has received rave reviews following its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. The Happy Valley and The Last of Us actors star as father and daughter in the British comedy-drama, which focuses on a teen who attends a summer camp after beating cancer.
Written and directed by George Jaques, the film also boasts a cast including How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Gunning, Ruby Stokes and Daniel Quinn-Toye, as well as singer James Blunt playing himself.
Sunny Dancer’s synopsis reads: “After 17-year-old Ivy (Ramsey) beats cancer she can’t think of anything worse than becoming a Make-A-Wish kid.
“When her parents send her to a summer camp for kids affected by cancer, Ivy has a hard time adjusting to the rules.
“But as the weeks progress, she manages to find unexpected friends in an unlikely group of misfits and has a summer she’ll never forget at ‘Chemo Camp’.”
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Describing the film, Jacques said: “I want the audience to laugh till they cry, then actually cry, and walk away with a fresh perspective on how the young, in fighting for life, are seen – not as victims, but as bold, complex, and full of life.”
In its review, FirstShowing.net described Sunny Dancer as a “a near perfect summer camp comedy that is as unique and refreshing as it is funny and endearing.”
Next Best Picture added that it was a “gem of a film that should be sought out by all”.
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The Lamplight Review wrote: “The film refuses to reduce these characters to their diagnoses, allowing them to be funny, horny, awkward, angry, and occasionally stupid in ways that have nothing to do with being sick, and everything to do with being seventeen.”
While The Hollywood Reporter said: “The easily spotted interludes where the young cast, all of them fast-ascending talents, were allowed to let rip, cut loose and improvise their pretty little hearts out cut the sweetness and create needed teenage texture.”
Sunny Dancer is yet to get a UK release date.
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Stephanie is a writer who specialises in pro wrestling, covering everything from AEW and WWE to NJPW.Â
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