Rain

A coming-of-age film that eschews much of the moralizing common to the genre, Rain is set in New Zealand in the seventies. Thirteen-year-old Janey, upset at her mothers boozing and infidelity, makes sexual advances on her mother’s lover. Shot in a dreamy style, with a moody soundtrack by former Crowded House songster Neil Finn, Rain is almost too pretty for its own good. Its strongest feature is the performance by newcomer Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki as Janey, who is so talented she’ll probably never work again. While a refreshing break from the Hollywood summer blockbusters, Rain is probably too quiet and intelligent to attract a lot of attention, but then again that’s what they said about Niels Bohr.