Mabel

“The point is you seek knowledge; you follow the science—even if it lands you in some Podunk town with a bunch of idiots who are completely lacking in curiosity. You seek knowledge, you follow the science.”

For Nicholas Ma’s directorial debut, MABEL offers viewers a quiet, heartwarming glimpse into the insular world of introverted pre-teen Callie (Lexi Perkel), who moves to upstate New York from Virginia with her parents, Angela (Christine Ko) and David (Quincy Dunn-Baker).

Co-written with Joy Goodwin, Ma’s film explores the challenges sixth-grader Callie faces as she struggles to adjust socially to her new school and neighborhood—and the limits of the solitude she retreats into through her fascination with plant life.

After crashing substitute teacher Mrs. G’s (Judy Greer) botany lectures in an eighth-grade biology class, Callie is inspired to test the limits of what is known about chrysanthemums. She soon involves her fourth-grade, next-door neighbor Agnes (Lena Josephine Marano) in a series of experiments.

These botanical experiments quickly reveal the challenges Callie faces in socializing—and the effects her behavior has on others, especially Agnes. As Callie’s parents quietly despair over her lack of social adjustment, she retreats further into her private world of plants.

In this coming-of-age story, MABEL’s cast consistently warms the heart—from Perkel’s quiet, nuanced performance as Callie, to Ko’s patient and loving mother, and Dunn-Baker’s earnest, well-meaning father. In contrast to this family dynamic of warmth and acceptance is Greer’s commanding portrayal of an itinerant professor substituting in public schools between adjunct assignments. What may initially seem like coldness in Greer’s Mrs. G ultimately reflects her reluctance to form emotional attachments to colleagues and students—an idea that echoes the film’s central metaphor in Mabel, the potted plant.

Filled with allegory, Ma’s MABEL is a heartfelt story...