Indie drama 'Babyteeth' gives sick teen in love plot a bit of bite

“Babyteeth” is guaranteed to get under your skin. This refreshingly original Australian indie about a terminally ill teen who falls in love with the wrong guy is designed to push all the buttons: It'll frustrate, delight, annoy and devastate. In other words, it's quite the journey. But it's one that mercifully avoids the trite sentimentality and emotional blackmail that have become clichés of the genre.

Eliza Scanlen stars as 16-year-old Milla Finlay, who is living with cancer. Her parents, Henry (Ben Mendelsohn) and Anna (Essie Davis), are well-off and loving, but it's not exactly happy times in the Finlay household.

Henry is an oblivious therapist whose default fix is plying his wife with drugs, which just means she's barely there. And Milla, meanwhile, is attempting to maintain a semblance of normalcy, attending her private school and music lessons, while also undergoing chemotherapy and knowing that she might not have much time left.

It's under these circumstances that Moses (Toby Wallace) comes crashing, literally, into Milla's life. He runs into her on a train platform and nearly pushes her onto the tracks. It's a deranged meet-cute, since Moses is not your typical movie teenager love interest. He is not some dreamy bad boy with a heart of gold. He is a rattailed, tattooed, 23-year-old drug addict and dealer.

Moses is high and red-eyed most of the time, essentially homeless, unreliable and, perhaps worst of all, unwilling and unable to change. And the first thing he does is ask Milla for money. But something about him snaps her out of a daze and she is smitten.

Is it an act of teenage rebellion against her upper middle-class life? Is it out of genuine interest? Probably it's a bit of both and Milla invites him into her life, much to the chagrin of her parents.

Moses adds an element of external chaos to their already internally chaotic lives. Milla is simply delighted by him. And in some ways, Henry and Anna seem to appreciate the distraction from the cancer. At least Moses is a tangible and somewhat manageable threat to their daughter. Besides, Moses does have a sweetness and an ability to surprise that makes you unable to hate him. It is a testament to Wallace's performance that you stay with him on this roller coaster.

“Babyteeth” is an assured and stimulating feature debut from director Shannon Murphy, working with a script by Rita Kalnejais. It is raw, funny and often uncomfortable.

Scanlen, who played another sickly teen, Beth March, in Greta Gerwig's “Little Women,” is simply wonderful as Milla. Scanlen delicately balances strength, vulnerability and teenage yearning to create a truly memorable character.

And despite a rocky and overly quirky intro, Mendelsohn and Davis are equally superb as parents and partners trying to cling onto their daughter for as long as they can and drifting apart in the process. Henry has one moment with Moses that is sure to leave you in a puddle (the first of a few no doubt).