There’s a real bounce and energy to this beautifully acted Netflix coming-of-age tale about a 16-year-old with an eating disorder – who’s on a mission to live wildly
Everything Now is a coming-of-age story with several twists and a lot of angst, all of which it carries with more intelligence and style than your average teen drama. Sixteen-year-old Mia Polanco (Sophie Wilde, star of recent cult horror film Talk to Me) has just been released from a private eating disorder treatment centre, where she has been an inpatient. She doesn’t so much leave as burst out of its doors. She has a lot to catch up on, but when she suggests going to the cinema or bowling, her group of friends has to inform her that life has changed. Sex, booze and parties are the new bowling. “How can I have missed so much in seven months?” Mia asks, before establishing a “Fuck It Bucket List” of activities, from going on a date and having her first kiss to breaking the law, clubbing and beyond.
Mia’s anorexia is the main character here. Everything Now is responsible about it, but not toothless. Her illness recedes into the background then roars back. It is not rational or linear. One episode, later in the series, assumes the perspective of her brother, Alex, which emphasises just how consuming her experience has been for everyone who loves her. Netflix faced criticism for its 2017 film To the Bone, which also told the story of a young woman in treatment for an eating disorder, but with considerably less tact and nuance than this. Everything Now is sometimes sad and often stressful – not least because teenagers really would save themselves a lot of problems if they had a simple conversation about what they were thinking – but it is also funny, and defiantly blunt.
Everything Now is on Netflix now.
