Tallulah

Tallulah (2016) is Sian Heder's bittersweet drama-comedy, ready to watch online on iFILM. A young drifter living out of her van walks off with a stranger's baby almost by accident, then passes the child off as her own to talk her way into a closed door.

Elliot Page plays Lu, broke and rootless after her boyfriend takes off. She shows up at his mother Margaret's apartment, and Allison Janney's lonely, brittle woman lets her in, convinced the baby is her granddaughter. The lie deepens by the hour while the infant's real mother, a careless Beverly Hills wife spiraling in panic at her hotel, realizes what she's done.

Heder, who later wrote and directed CODA, made this her feature debut and reunited the Juno pairing of Page and Janney. Their scenes turn an absurd kidnapping into something quiet and aching about motherhood and need. There's no big twist here, just two actors worth the runtime, which is the point for anyone who watches for performance over plot. Stream Tallulah (2016) online on iFILM.