Fantasia Fest 2025: I Live Here Now Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Writer-director Julie Pacino arrives at Fantasia with the world premiere of her feature debut, I Live Here Now. The film follows Rose (Fry), an aspiring actress who, after an unexpected pregnancy, spirals into a nightmarish world brought on by repressed trauma and meticulous fears of her future. Shot on lustrous 35mm, Pacino profoundly dives into these psychological themes through Rose’s vivid dreams and hallucinations as she navigates these heavy emotions and decisions.

Adamant that she was infertile due to previous health complications, Rose’s pregnancy comes as a shock in the wake of her audition opportunities to become a rising star. Her pompous boyfriend, Travis (Matt Rife), unsettled with the predicament, quickly involves his overbearing mother, Martha (Sheryl Lee). Notably, Lee’s commanding performance provides scene-stealing moments that mark an incredible career highlight outside her prominent Twin Peaks role, additionally made intriguing by the film’s evident David Lynch inspirations. Martha’s domineering and abusive presence with her son Travis’ compliant and complicit behavior makes their confrontation with Rose apparent that the unyielding demand to control the decision of the baby is not their first situation dealing with this, setting the precedent for a potential modern influence of Rosemary’s Baby.

Sharp-witted Rose quickly assesses the uneasiness of their intentions and runs away to consult an abortion clinic on her own terms, even hiding out in a remote hotel to escape their clutches. Upon arriving at this hotel is where the subversion of initially established expectations rapidly deteriorates, inaugurating the aforementioned Lynchian elements that inundate the screen. Unperturbed by the elaborate, unhinged nature of this canvas painting that can accurately describe this surreal hotel, Rose attempts to isolate herself in her sublimely designed suite filled with various shades of the red color palette. Persistently interrupted by her surrounding acquaintances, hotel manager Ada (Lara Clear), hotel employee Sid (Rich), and hotel guest Lillian (Brewer) serve as personified vessels for Rose’s repressed trauma, immense regrets, and meticulous fears for the repercussions of her decision to keep the baby or not. Pacino frequently blurs the line between reality and fiction, as Rose’s intensely vivid dreams and hallucinations challenge the viewers with what we really understand about her psyche, led by a fearless and unrelenting emotional performance from Fry.

In the end, Pacino’s I Live Here Now is an arrestingly beautiful debut, delving into Rose’s complex psyche that has manifested into a Lynchian world. The film utilizes a powerful supporting cast to personify the immense fears, regrets, and trauma to give weight to her heavy decisions. Serving a career-best performance, Fry delivers all the emotional intensity and fearlessness to Rose that hooks the audience to the film.

still courtesy of Utopia

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Costa Christoulas

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