Bella Ramsey’s Sunny Dancer became available on digital in the United States on October 16, ending a run that kept the film in front of only a small number of American moviegoers. It can now be rented or bought through Amazon Video, the Apple TV Store and Fandango At Home, with rentals also offered through Plex, so anyone who missed it in theaters can watch it at home tonight.
The film casts Ramsey as Ivy, a 17-year-old who is ten months into remission from leukemia and in no hurry to be treated like a fragile success story. Her parents sign her up for Children Run Free Camp, a summer camp in Scotland for young people affected by cancer. Ivy arrives calling the place “chemo camp” and fully expecting to count the days until she can leave.
What she finds instead is a group of teenagers who have all been through treatment and are determined to spend the summer being teenagers, with first love, small rebellions and a lot of gallows humor along the way. Writer and director George Jaques built the film with no hospital scenes at all, keeping the focus on what life looks like after treatment ends. Jessica Gunning and James Norton play Ivy’s parents, Karen and Bob, and Neil Patrick Harris plays Patrick, the camp president whose constant cheerfulness turns out to have a personal story behind it. Ruby Stokes plays Ivy’s roommate Ella, with Daniel Quinn-Toye, Earl Cave, Jasmine Elcock and Conrad Khan rounding out the young campers, and Este Haim and Zachary Dawes composed the score.
The road to home viewing started on February 13, when Sunny Dancer opened the Generation 14plus section at the Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for the Crystal Bear. It opened in UK and Irish cinemas on August 14, and Trevor Decker News has followed it since Quiver acquired the North American rights in July and through the British opening in August. Quiver opened the film in American theaters on September 18, but only in a limited run that reached a fraction of the country.
That limited release is exactly why the digital arrival matters. The performance at the center of the film drew some of the strongest reviews of Ramsey’s career outside The Last of Us, and until now most American viewers had no way to see it. Sunny Dancer runs 106 minutes and is not rated in the United States, and it is available now on the digital platforms listed above.
Where to Watch
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