Spoonful of Sugar

Millicent is taking a semester off from her studies to concentrate on her thesis about children with severe allergies, which makes her the perfect person to take care of little Johnny, a sickly, mute child who suffers from every allergy under the sun, from nickel to artificial fabric. His overbearing mother, Rebecca, is an accomplished author who is focused on her latest book release, while his dissatisfied father, Jacob, spends sweaty, shirtless days toiling away on a carpentry project in the backyard. Lacking a family of her own and seeking escape from the creepy arrangement she has with a father figure (David Yow), Millicent enmeshes herself in the family’s dysfunctional lives — forming a disturbing bond with the young Johnny, carrying on a torrid affair with Jacob, and taking more liberal use of the LSD that she micrordoses as part of a therapeutic regimen. As Johnny’s behavior becomes increasingly violent and Millicent’s disturbing hallucinations grow more prevalent, the threads all converge, threatening to throw Rebecca’s tidy world into chaos. (Fantastic Fest)