Disfluency

If its ambitions never quite meet its execution, “Disfluency” is (clunky title aside) an amiable watch with its heart (and head) in the right place that still manages to charm, perhaps because it so exalts the very concept of imperfection.

It’s a testament to “Disfluency”‘s ultimate affect, and the lead performances, that it can successfully overcome the preachiness of Baumgarten’s script.

...one can’t help but wonder what the — potentially impressive — effect might have been without the relentless spoon-feeding.

A sensitive look at trauma and recovery.

Through its sobering effort to present an always-successful-until-now young woman carrying unhealed pain, Disfluency sheds light on an ominous emotional burden far too many people have experienced and far too many people have sought to carry silently.

…the messaging about trauma is secondary to a moving, thoughtful and sensitive film about recovery…

Disfluency gets lost in some of its own distractions, but in this case, they also serve as disfluencies, elevating material that is otherwise simply too rudimentary for the story being told.


While the broad strokes are familiar, it’s in the smaller details where Disfluency feels so grounded, genuine, and intimate.

An Independent Spirit worthy directorial debut from Anna Baumgarten.

Disfluency has all the warmth of Lady Bird and the urgency of Never Rarely Sometimes Always. It’s quietly confident, a reminder of the essential nature of storytelling.