Pivot (2023)

Pivot is an animated telling of twelve-year-old Ashley’s struggles. She wants to be one thing, and her mother wants her to be something entirely different. Ashley is now forced to grapple with which version of herself she will become. She represents so many young girls, and she’s here to take a stand.

Interestingly enough, considering the gravity of the film, Pivot is a fun telling of the journey through adolescence. With the popping visuals and the fact that the film is animated, Pivot becomes easily accessible to all–and the incredibly short nature of the film keeps it from overstepping or ever becoming too much to handle. With that being said, I think viewers go into this film thinking that it plays out in one of two ways. It either leans heavily into a childish, somewhat immature tone via the animation–or it becomes too heavy. People are cynics–and I’m just like everyone else, expecting that Pivot can’t find the balance that it so desperately needs to be successful.

I WAS WRONG!

Yes, the animation does allow the film to remain present in a place that younger viewers can access, and there are moments in which the film does seem a tad immature–but I think that’s important to the product. The reality is that Writer Robyn Campbell and Director Ana Gusson need younger audiences to be able to appreciate the film, to understand the place from which it comes. The animation and the simplicity allow that to happen. Beyond that, however, there are moments when things become very serious, almost dark–and that’s when more mature audiences are able to appreciate the film. It seems that every step of the way throughout Pivot Campbell and Gusson find ways to appeal to different groups of viewers. Balance is achieved early and often, and Pivot is a success as a result.

There’s one very linear story present in Pivot, and it’s not too difficult for viewers to understand what it is that the film is trying to say–but there are subtle nuances that exist throughout the film that strengthen the narrative. These are things that didn’t need to exist, things that often exist in the background or only take up a second or two of time–but they possess massive meaning. It’s things like this that strengthen the film, that make it Oscar worthy; these are the things that set films like Pivot apart from other films of this nature–and Gusson and Campbell ensure that they do all that they can to develop a powerfully-relevant film.

The one thing that I struggled with, however, is the emotion (or lack thereof). Sure, the emotion comes through from time to time–but that aforementioned animation and simplicity, more often than not, causes the emotions to remain hidden. The animation itself is quite simple, and that doesn’t allow the emotions of Ashley and her mother to come to life as vibrantly as I would have liked. This is the one thing that Pivot is missing. In the nuances strewn throughout the film, emotion comes through–but from the characters, the place the majority of the emotion should have come from, it just doesn’t happen like it should.

Pivot has a lot of potential, and I think that the majority of the film lives up to it. There are some issues with emotion not being present in the characters quite as much as I had hoped, but other than that, the majority of the film is full of emotion that is presented to viewers in a number of ways. Ultimately I’m impressed with what Gusson and Campbell are able to create with Pivot, and I believe that audiences of all ages will be able to access its content and its messages.

Directed by Ana Gusson.

Written by Robyn Campbell.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10