We all have souls. That sentiment sits at the heart of “Pretty Babies,” Tyler-Marie Evans‘ feature debut, which world premieres Friday in competition at the Edinburgh Intl. Film Festival. The project attracted Jordan Wagner from Wagner Entertainment and also independent film icon Christine Vachon‘s Killer Films, who alongside star Ashley Benson took on producer roles.
It follows Marie and Luna, played by Emily Alyn Lind and Sadie Stanley as best friends who set off to chase a dream and escape their trauma only to take paths into sex work and oblivion.
“There’s been a lot said on the topic of sex work, especially in cinema,” Evans told Variety. “I felt like I hadn’t seen this topic discussed in an interior way.”
“This is a film about what happens when you disassociate from your body, and you no longer are in touch with your body, and yet the world is placing questions upon you. ‘Are you the whore? Are you the virgin? Are you good? Are you bad?'”
For the director, those questions arrive long before women are able to answer them themselves. Sexuality and identity become intertwined, while the complexity of a person is reduced to categories that culture, including cinema, repeats.
“Pretty Babies” avoids framing those choices as either tragedy or liberation.
“I really wanted to show it through the sisterhood,” she said.
Marie and Luna’s world expands with the arrival of Sapphire (Ashley Benson) and Gemma (Madelaine Petsch), whose relationship mirrors many of the same tensions.
Before writing the film, Evans interviewed women involved in sex work and found herself drawn to relationships that swerve simple moral definitions.
“I saw a lot of friendships where one person was desperately hurting the other, and yet it was the only space that they found love and connection,” she said. “There’s this weird tug of war between connection and being seen.”
That complexity extends to the film’s central relationship between Marie and Luna. Luna repeatedly hurts Marie, yet remains someone she loves and often needs. There is a mirroring in the relationship of Sapphire and Gemma whereby Sapphire seems to have a hold over Gemma while also having a strong bond.
“I’m sort of tired of the same type of story of a woman being saved by a man,” Evans explained. “I didn’t want to show these perfect friendships or perfect relationships. I wanted to show the darkness and the complexity.”
Luna herself was partly inspired by Edie Sedgwick. Evans became fascinated by Andy Warhol’s descriptions of Sedgwick refusing to wash, choosing instead to repeatedly apply makeup.
“I wanted to show the world Luna came from,” Evans said. “I never wanted to make her a villain.”
Old Hollywood is a key influence and part of the fabric of the film, classic clips are spliced, Bette Davis on a poster looks on in key scenes.
Evans grew up in a deeply religious household where films produced after the sixties were forbidden. Instead, she spent her teenage years discovering Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock and the women of Hollywood’s studio era.
“I was a 14 year old who didn’t know who Miley Cyrus was, didn’t know what ‘Twilight’ was,” she laughs. “I was in Texas watching these old movies.”
“Gone With the Wind” proved especially formative. For the director, Scarlett O’Hara’s determination became an early model of female strength.
“I saw Joan Crawford and Bette Davis and these women, and I was like: they have voice,” said Evans. “Those aren’t women you want to pass in a dark alley. They are forces to be reckoned with.”
Growing up without what she felt was a strong cultural inheritance, classic Hollywood became one.
“This is my culture. This is my mythology. This is my American mythos.”
That fascination runs throughout the story. Classical cinema is a dream world for Marie and Luna to imagine themselves into.
She describes herself as “deeply impressionistic” rather than realist.“Cinema has to be hope,” she said. “I want to show people better than who they are.”
Alongside Old Hollywood, Evans cites Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides,” Robert Altman’s “3 Women,” Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona,” Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and Warhol’s films as important influences. While Coppola shaped the intimacy between the girls, “Persona” informed one of the film’s sexual sequences, and “Taxi Driver” became a reference point for imagining a story from the perspective of a character like Jodie Foster’s Iris.
“There’s such a specific motif for me in this movie of the sweat and then the glitter,” she said. Cinematographer Laura Guiteras runs with this as we return frequently to light bouncing off the sheen the sweat gives upon the characters faces.
Originally intended to shoot in New Mexico, production relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma after costs became prohibitive. The city’s Art Deco architecture gave the production a welcome location nod to Hollywood’s golden age.
“It feels like a ghost town,” she explained. “There’s such untouched Art Deco.”
The film’s intimacy also emerged from Evans’ directing process.
She encouraged the actors to remain in character for extended takes asking them to continue inhabiting the moment while the camera rolled.
“The crew called them ‘breathing moments,'” she said. “I’d say, ‘You’re not going to hear cut. I want you to live as the character.'”
The approach generated a significant amount of footage resulting in a first cut running around two and a half hours before she and editor Benjamin Rodriguez Jr., a frequent Paul Schrader collaborator, reduced it to its final 90-minute form.
Ultimately, the director hopes “Pretty Babies” encourages audiences to see past the identities imposed upon its characters.
“I really hope they feel the essence and the depth and the wonder of their own soul watching it,” she said. “That they’re not just a stereotype. That there is immense complexity within them.”