Magnetosphere (Mags Film) [Film Review]

Two years ago, I reviewed a charming feature debut from Indie filmmaker Nicola Rose. Goodbye Petrushka was one of the quirkiest films I had seen in a long while and dealt with the awkwardness of finding love in the most unusual of circumstances…  and involved ballet and puppets. Rose’s follow-up, Magnetosphere, follows similar themes, this time with a younger lead character, falling for an older guy but seeing him through the eyes of someone who has Synaesthesia.

Synaesthesia is a recognised condition where the individual associates people and objects through colour, and the film uses some beautiful aesthetics to show the visions of 13-year-old New girl in town, Maggie, played with natural awkwardness by Shayelin Martin (The Boys, Wild Goat Surf).

Magnetosphere – Shayelin Martin movie still

The story follows two strands of Maggie’s life, her tormented school time where she is ridiculed for being “different” and her role as junior assistant director on her father’s ailing theatre production of Pirates of Penzance. At school, her saviour comes in the form of Wendy (Mikayla Kong), her one ally against the classroom mean girls. Wendy may have more than just a friendship in mind, but Maggie is blinded by her infatuation with an adult member of the theatre company, Travis (Steven He).

All three players in this most unusual of love triangles are charming and relatable, particularly if you are a neurodivergent viewer. All three have various conditions with Wendy also having a level of Synaesthesia and Travis being dyslexic. Maggie’s father shows clear signs of ADHD also. The film however is not forcibly woke, and all issues are dealt with in the same cute and endearing humorous fashion as Rose’s debut.

Maggie’s family life is continually disrupted by Gil, an omnipresent handyman/pest exterminator played by Colin Mochrie (Whose Line Is It Anyway?), a long-time hero of the director. His comic interludes, which often vary on extreme slapstick, provide a diversion from the ongoing love story. The ever-disastrous rehearsals for her father’s play, which once again involves puppetry, also provide comic relief from the more angsty scenes.

The scenes between Maggie and Travis may be uncomfortable at times but are handled well by Rose and will make sense to any of us who can remember being born too late to consummate a school age crush.

Once again, the humour of the film will be mainly effective to those with a quirky indie sensibility and may not appeal directly to mainstream audiences, but the colour of Maggie’s visions, the innocence of the story and the comic set-pieces are enough to bring a positive and thought-provoking ninety minutes into most viewers’ lives. Check out the film’s official website.

Magnetosphere – Steven He & Shayelin Martin movie still