Turtles All The Way Down is the latest coming-of-age film streaming on MAX as of May 3rd. Directed by Hannah Marks, the film is adapted from the novel Turtles All The Way Down by John Green, an award-winning author known for his young adult novels.

Turtles All The Way Down follows a sixteen-year-old Aza Holmes, played by Isabella Merced, who has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and Anxiety. While the film isn’t a detective story, it does start with the disappearance of Millionaire Russel Picett. Aza and her best friend Daisy, played by Cree Cicchino, go looking for clues, unexpectedly leading to Aza reuniting with childhood friend and Son of Russel Pickett, Davis, played by Felix Mallard.

Aza’s overall adventure leads to questions of unexpected love, identity, and pain. Turtles All The Way Down is a very real story, showing how reality is not only filled with sadness, but joy, success and failure as well. The true story aside from the mystery aspect, is a story of the ups and downs when it comes to living with the struggles of mental health in daily life.

This is shown through Aza and her battle with her own thoughts on a daily basis. When writing the book, author John Green draws on his own experience to realistically portray life with OCD. The film adapts this well, showing what Aza’s thought-spirals look and feel like. Giving the viewers insight on what it’s like to be pulled into a spiral of intrusive thoughts.

The film is aimed to show the interiority of how Aza’s thought-spirals work. With fast cuts, Andrea Bottigliero’s editing brings viewers into thoughts of the interstitials and mutating bacterial colonies that come to Aza’s mind. This is topped with the addition of her inner thoughts, reflecting a claustrophobic reality of her mind.

The film also does a wonderful job at deconstructing the idea that OCD could be cured by things like romance or the sudden realization of some purpose or understanding. 

As previously stated, Turtles All The Way Down isn’t a detective film as many advertising may attempt to sell it as. While mystery may be a subplot that helps the story commence, it really focuses on the characters’ internal struggles, self conflicts that these struggles lead to, and the reality of navigating life while dealing with mental health.

As the main character Aza strides to feel “normal” with things such as friendships, relationships, and the desire to go to college. As the other characters alongside Aza also play a large role in the complexity of the film, they each have their own struggles that the film addresses. This complexity not only brings self conflict, but conflict between these relationships of the characters in the film.

Overall, the film is a complex representation of living as a young adult while struggling with mental health and the ups and downs of navigating life. Capturing life lessons through character-to-character and internal dialogue, Turtles All The Way Down has lots to offer its viewers.