Everything in Between (2022)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on February 5, 2024 @ tonymacklin.net.

Everything in Between (Prime) is a quality Australian indie film.

Shot in Sydney, Australia, it's the character-driven story of two people who are polar opposites. The director Nadi Sha, in his debut feature, has called it "a coming of age film for adults."

The two main characters are Jason (Jordan Dulieu), a suicidal fatalist, and Liz (Freyja Benjamin) a spiritual optimist. The film - co-written by Sha and Grant Osborn - is about their evolving effect on each other.

Sha has said he tries to be authentic, and his two leads are. He also has mentioned Ordinary People as a film he affirms. The strength of Ordinary People is its humanity.

In Everything in Between some basic characters are nearly caricatures. Jason's parents are shallow and selfish. His mother (Gigi Edgley) is a histrionic drinker, and his father (Martin Crewes) is energetic but an adulterer. They seem more stock figures than human beings.

This makes the casting of the younger couple even more important since they are carrying the film.

The strength of Everything in Between is the performance of Jordan Dulieu as Jason. He has to make passivity interesting. At the beginning, two of his few words are "nothing" and "sorry." Not much input there. And since he broods, his visual expressions are crucial. He has to be able to express humanity. He does.

So too does Freyja Benjamin as Liz. And she can use vitality as an effective virtue.

In Everything in Between, love can't conquer all. But it can have a lasting effect.