Reel Love Fest 2021: Milkwater
Morgan S. Ingari’s debut feature Milkwater is a dramedy about what it means to make a family. The idea of a found family is not something new, but what Milkwater offers is a fresh take on nuclear families and the varying shapes it can take in the 21st century. What is so refreshing about Ingari’s film is how “the closet” doesn’t factor in it at all. The queer people in her film are just living their lives and figuring out what it means to be queer and wanting a family. It’s a sweet movie, though often quite challenging and ambiguous.
Milo (Molly Bernard) is an impulsive twenty-something in New York City, who is coming to the unsettling realization that her friends are moving towards adulthood without her. Rather than coming to terms with evolving friendships, she stubbornly lashes out. At a downtown gay bar, she meets Roger (Patrick Breen), a fifty-something gay man who longs to build his own family after several unsuccessful attempts. Milo offers to be his surrogate, nominally as a selfless act bigger than herself, and the two begin a cautious new arrangement.
Milo becomes pregnant through a home artificial insemination, and sees herself as a “cool aunt” to the baby. Roger however starts to set boundaries and insists on a very prohibitive contract. Milo becomes desperate to cultivate a friendship with Roger, which only makes Roger resist her more. The stroke of genius in Ingari’s script and direction is that the movie doesn’t totally paint Milo as some clingy weirdo who can’t take a hint. She is that, but Roger himself never took the time to establish his vision of their arrangement and pulls away just when she might need him most. After all, Milo is going through a major life change alone and, for all her faults, needs understanding and compassion. Their dynamic is complicated, and the film is at its brightest when zeroing in on them.
Equally well-handled is Milo’s friendship with Noor (Ava Eisenson), whose marriage and baby shower kickstarts Milo’s spiral. Their conflict is so potent because there is no easy solution—this is just life, where people move on at different times. Noor is the stable friend, Milo the needy one. But now Noor has her own life and Milo is left without a rock, a stable figure in her life. Milo needs to grow up, but Noor seems impatient and sometimes callous. Milkwater also gets to the very surreal experience of seeing a friend defer to their spouse, and you’re left wondering when your headstrong, independent friend became so conventional. Of course, that’s just how marriage works but it’s quite bizarre nonetheless.
The one part of Milkwater that does not quite work is its comedic voice. The overuse of internet slang is grating at times, and the banter feels way over-written. Some of the jokes feel like they were written before Ingari developed the story and then fed into the characters’ mouths. The friendship between Milo and her roommate George (Robin de Jesus) feels like a “straight girl + gay best friend” cliché from the 2000s. The romantic subplot between Milo and musician Cameron (Ade Otukoya) is cute but again their flirting feels unnatural.
However, none of this dims Ingari’s potential as she develops her voice. She will be a talent to watch because her heart and emotional intelligence are striking and powerful. Visually, Ingari makes beautiful use of New York City, especially its depiction of gay bars. A movie like this runs the risk of seeming “too cool,” but it is intentional when it pokes fun at millennial New Yorkers. The film is also gentle, especially towards Milo as she realizes that Roger has a life that does not and will not include her. Molly Bernard’s performance is nimble and athletic, as she maintains a comedic sensibility while Milo is hurtling towards a breakdown. It’s a tough character, but Bernard pulls it off so well. I’m reminded of Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids, who was both tragic and funny, sometimes at the same time. Patrick Breen is also empathetic and offers a complex and all too rare portrayal of gayness. It is admirable how deftly he can be distant from Milo without losing audience sympathy and how his longing is quite palpable. Milkwater is a portrait of changing lives, through a unique, funny, and queer lens.
