Fantasia Review: “Sweetness”

Sweetness (Emma Higgins, 2025) 4 out of 5 stars

Let me MapQuest this for you (yes, I’m old):

• • Turn left on Fatal Attraction Boulevard
• • Go 10-miles and take a right on Resolution Way
• • Go four-miles and take a slight left on Eighth Grade Street
• • Go 0.5 miles and you have reached your destination

Sweetness is a picture that lives and dies by its influences. Filmmaker Emma Higgins certainly isn’t trying to hide them; she wears them like a badge of honor. Sure, the plot might not be the most original in the world, but where Sweetness excels is in its pitch-perfect recreation of the experience teenage girls have. The dialogue is incredibly authentic. The emotional registers are never turned up too high, but just right. The feelings just feel real. 

In a star-making performance (if there ever was one), Kate Hallett stars as Rylee, an unpopular high-school teen who is obsessed with the band Floorplan, specifically its lead singer, Payton Adler (Herman Tømmeraas), the “enfant terrible” of the pop/rock music world. Her best friend, Sidney (Aya Furukawa), is also obsessed, if not quite as profoundly, and is happy to accompany her best friend to a concert. Through a strange series of events, Payton ends up pseudo-overdosing in Rylee’s bathroom, leading his #1 fan to handcuff him to her bed and hold him hostage while he detoxes from his relapse. Such a good friend, right?

This is the terrain where most of Sweetness takes place, with Rylee holding Payton hostage and doing everything she can to ensure no one discovers her secret. Is she being honest when she says she wants to keep him safe and help him detox? Absolutely. But she has other motives, as well. Rylee is a lonely girl and doesn’t want to give up the excitement. The more involved she gets in the plan, the darker and more twisted her actions become. Eventually, it becomes entirely about keeping Payton all to herself, despite the warnings of her best friend, and the increasing suspicions of her father (Justin Chatwin) and stepmother (Amanda Brugel).

In terms of performances, there’s not a false note with anyone. Norwegian actor Herman Tømmeraas is the perfect choice for the drug-addled pop star. He’s appropriately gorgeous, a fantastic performer (thanks to the incredible original songs from Blitz//Berlin), and you really see him as a complicated character struggling with his own demons, trying to be a good person but constantly letting himself and others down. Some of his scenes with Rylee have such a good nature to them, even under the circumstances. Equally effective is Aya Furukawa, another star in the making. Her emotionality is off the charts, as in one scene where she breaks down in Rylee’s bedroom, and it’s heartbreaking. I just wanted to give her a big hug.

But this is Hallett’s show from top to bottom. Apart from a small role in Sarah Polley’s Women Talking, this is really her breakthrough, and she makes a meal of it. You get everything you need from Rylee as a character. We understand her teenage awkwardness. We understand her obsession with Payton. We feel everything she feels and can’t help but root for her even when she’s doing the most horrible things. Rylee is a villain, don’t get me wrong. She’s a psychopath. But she’s one we can relate to on certain levels. This young lady has already mastered so much of her craft that it’s a bit staggering. I cannot wait to see what she does next.

Sweetness demands attention. It’s a fun, twisted ride through awkward adolescence, but also a chronicle of how one young girl turns into a fiend. Sequel idea: Floorplan replaces their lead singer because of his drug use. Rylee resents this. So, she makes it her mission to track down and kill the new lead singer. Hell, I have ideas for about three different sequels. I just want to dive into this world with these characters again and let Hallett take me on another insane journey with her performance. I truly hope this film finds an audience because you don’t see very many films that broadcast their influences with such confidence. Sweetness can do that because it knows, in many instances, it might be one-upping the originals. 

[Sweetness just had its Canadian premiere at Fantasia 2025.]

Billy Ray Brewton

Billy Ray Brewton is the producer and founder of Make Believe Theatricals, which specializes in promoting unique creative voices that exist outside the mainstream. Billy Ray was the subject of the award-winning documentary, Skanks (Slamdance 2014); wrote and directed the award-winning dramatic horror film Show Yourself (Bruce Campbell’s Horror Film Fest 2017); produced the award-winning documentary Socks on Fire (Tribeca 2020, “Best Documentary Feature”); and served as associate producer on the horror anthology, The Mortuary Collection (Fantastic Fest 2019, “Audience Choice Best Feature”). The short film he produced in 2016, Pool Shark, currently has over 100 million views on YouTube. His next project as a producer, Mental Health and Horror, is scheduled for release in 2025. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, IDA, and Documentary Producers Alliance; is the ultimate heel on the Screen Drafts podcast; and writes about film for Cinepunx.