Claudio Carvalho The ten year-old Angela (Miranda Stuart Rhyne) and her little sister Ellie (Charlotte Blythe) move to an old house in the countryside with her parents Mae (Anna Thomson) and Andrew (John Ventimiglia). Their mother has mental illness and has just left an institution and her husband tries to keep the dysfunctional family together. Angela is an imaginative disturbed girl that might have inherited the illness of her mother and is obsessed by purification to get rid of her sins; and has visions of the fallen angel Lucifer and the Virgin Mary. She leads her little sister in her paranoia and uses a circle of toys and dolls to protect them against evil. They have a crazy neighbor that Angela believes is an angel and she asks the woman how to find the way to heaven. When Mae returns to the institution, Angela becomes uncontrollable in her quest to heaven. "Angela" is a weird and bizarre film about mental illness and religious paranoia. Angela seems to have inherited the mental disorder of her mother, having vision of Lucifer and Virgin Mary, and fantasizing purification processes to cleanse the sins to reach heaven. The worst is that she drags her little sister in her fantasy. The tragic conclusion is expected. It is impressive the number of times that the microphone is visible. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): 'Angela: Nas Asas da Imaginação' ("Angela: In the Wings of the Imagination")

GirlBecomesWoman This is a complex story about insanity, and the thin line between insanity and religious superstition. Two little girls are neglected by their parents, and the older girl (Angela) imagines or hallucinates seeing and talking to the devil. The younger girl has a scary moment imagining or hallucinating too. Nobody teaches these kids about reality, and in the end that lack of attention becomes a horrible disaster. The ending has such impact that the second time I saw the film I turned it off before the ending.The girls are absolutely adorable and the photography does them justice. There is one nude scene (body suits?) that is completely innocent. The two girls are portrayed realistically most of the time, so that you don't really mind the occasional lapses in realism. The children are so lovable that the ending is doubly tragic: you want the story of their lives to go on forever.A great scene is when the two girls sneak away from the adults, find their way to a carnival, and meet a young man who is apparently a pedophile. They unwisely follow him to a somewhat secluded place, and he kisses Angela. But the child imagines he is an angel, and tells him "I know who you are." The poor guy is frightened to death that he's about to be arrested and runs away! There are many other great moments of comedy and irony in this film. Despite the lack of high-budget action or special effects, there isn't a boring moment in the whole movie. The writer/director is a creative genius, and the music is beautiful too!Frank Adamo, author of the documentary "Girl Becomes Woman."

Movie-viewer The movie Angela, although entertaining in its beginning as a lyrical commentary on the precariousness of childhood, eventually puzzles and disappoints as it declines into David Lynch-like lines and imagery that really don't add anything (except perhaps atmosphere) to the film. In the first half of the film, Rebecca Miller provides us with glimpses and feelings of childhood that trigger vague remembrances of half-forgotten feelings of our own childhood -- the seemingly contradictory juxtaposition of the helplessness of being a non-adult forced to deal with adult problems (e.g., irresponsible or sick parent), with the powerful strength that comes from an ability to believe in worlds that cannot be seen. Unfortunately, the second half of the movie degenerates into cryptic dialogue and confusing imagery and scenarios that are reminiscent of Lynch at less than his best. Mixed in with an increasingly prominent religious-hysteria-in-young-girl story line, the movie just left me feeling annoyed that I'd invested my time in such an unsatisfying film. The main character also began to alienate me, and ultimately cause real antipathy in me, during this second half, where she continues to drag her sister along in her quest for salvation, appropriating other people's property (e.g., horse, family's picture) without compunction because they are "signs" of some holy grail that only she can detect.And although this may seem contradictory to my earlier comment about the cryptic dialogue and imagery, I found the second half to be much too intellectualized. It seems that the filmmaker was trying to tie in the fall of Satan/Lucifer with the fall that every human must experience in his/her maturation process -- through the realization of one's sexuality (signified by Angela's clothing and a particular event), and through the realization of one's own mortality (signified by Angela's search for the way to heaven). But I found these efforts to be generally unmoving (perhaps because they were so confused) and thus, as previously stated, ultimately taking away from the enjoyment of the movie. (Also, I thought a 10-year-old was a bit too young to illustrate these themes, and the film would have been better off staying away from them altogether.) Consequently, the latter half of the movie became a rambling essay on the painful awakenings each child must experience on the road to adulthood, rather than the poem or short story it could have been on the terrible beauty of childhood in an imperfect world.

cheapdate I loved the plot, acting and direction of this movie, so it pains me to say this but on a technical level ANGELA is subpar thanks to a starring role from--the sound boom! Yes, my friend and I counted no fewer than a dozen scenes in which the boom was clearly visible over the actors' heads. The worst of these is when Angela and her sister are walking along the railroad, approaching the boy's house; the mic bobs around like a fishing pole caught on a rubber boot. A pity, because given its other merits ANGELA should have been an intelligent, professional-looking film.