Charliebird, drama, film festivals, Gabe Fazio, Gabriela Ochoa Perez, Jeffrey Grover, Libby Ewing, Maria Peyramaure, movies, reviews, Samantha Smart, Texas, Tribeca Festival, Tribeca Film Festival
June 14, 2025
by Carla Hay
“Charliebird”
Directed by Libby Ewing
Some language in Spanish with no subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Houston-Galveston area, the dramatic film “Charliebird” features a predominantly white and Latin cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A music therapist, who works in the children’s ward of a hospital, forms a tension-filled friendship with a moody teenage girl who has kidney problems.
Culture Audience: “Charliebird” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching realistic portrayals of chronically ill teenagers and the adults in their lives.
Beautifully understated and never cloying, “Charliebird” is a tender and sometimes emotionally raw drama about a hospital’s music therapist who befriends a teenage girl living with kidney issues. The movie’s direction and performances are not flashy but are grounded with an authentic tone. Viewers who are expecting a formulaic movie depiction of friendships that can develop between a hospital employee and a hospital patient might be disappointed that “Charliebird” doesn’t have sweeping dramatic moments or brisk pacing. But for people who are looking for a “slice of life” drama that doesn’t pretend to have all of life’s answers, “Charliebird” is worth watching.
Directed by Libby Ewing and written by Samantha Smart, “Charliebird” is Ewing’s feature-film directorial debut. “Charliebird” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, where it won two prizes: the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature and Best Performance in a U.S. Narrative Feature. Gabriela Ochoa Perez won the latter prize for her portrayal of the teenage patient who is one of the two central characters in the story. “Charliebird” screenwriter Smart portrays the other central character.
In “Charliebird” (which takes place in the Houston-Galveston area of Texas), Smart portrays Al (whose real name is Alyse), a music therapist who works with child patients in a hospital. Most of Al’s group therapy consists of doing sing-alongs with patients, as she plays acoustic guitar, as seen in the movie’s opening scene. She will do one-on-one therapy with patients who really need it.
Al (who is a bachelorette with no children) lives a quiet life with her reclusive father Fred (played by Jeffrey Grover), who seems to be depressed. It’s implied that he’s depressed over something that happened to Al’s sister. Al has visions and flashbacks of something from her childhood that has caused her to have unresolved trauma about something that happened to her sister when they were both about 8 to 10 years old. The movie doesn’t give all the details, but it drops enough hints about what happened.
Al is assigned to work one-on-one with 17-year-old Charlotte “Charlie” Reese (played by Ochoa Perez), who has spent the past few years living in hospitals because of her kidney issues. Charlie turns 18 during the course of the movie. At first, Charlie is very hostile to Al. However, Al doesn’t coddle Charlie or treat her with pity.
Slowly but surely, Charlie and bond over music and then bond as friends. Al has a small turntable where she plays a blues record that Charlie seems to like. It isn’t long before Charlie share some of the hip-hop music with Al, who doesn’t mind when Charlie makes fun of Al for awkward dancing when the music is played.
Charlie has loving and supportive parents named Frank (played by Gabe Fazio) and Elena (played by Maria Peyramaure), who want the best for Charlie. However, Charlie is in the rebellious teenage phase where she’s embarrassed by her parents and wants to assert more of her independence. There’s a very good scene where Elena and Al talk privately, and Elena candidly expresses her feelings about the toll it can take on a parent to have a child with Charlie’s issues.
“Charliebird” is filmed in a boxy aspect ratio that resembles home movies filmed on a phone. There’s an intimacy to the story that can be considered mundane at times but the movie can be admired for not indulging in melodrama. Smart and Ochoa Perez give admirable performances that brim with genuine camaraderie. Mostly, “Charliebird” (whose title is explained in the last 15 minutes of the film) succeeds in showing that even though Al is a therapist, she and Charlie each learn from each other what it means to experience some emotional healing in tough situations.