A Kidnapping of the Heart on Netflix

Ellen Page, who played a pregnant teen in Juno, goes fantastically further in a new tale of accidental motherhood. In Netflix’s Tallulah, Page’s homeless, wandering title character finds herself stealing a baby from a neglectful New York City trophy wife (Tammy Blanchard) in order to grift the mother (Allison Janney) of an old flame. The scam is that Janney is the babe’s grandma, but Tallulah allows herself to fall in love–with Janney’s gracious home, with Janney herself, with the kid.

A road warrior dropped into Manhattan bourgeois life, Page brilliantly alternates between rebellion and hard-earned comfort. Janney (of The West Wing and Masters of Sex) is reliably great. What’s more exciting is that Tallulah, getting a limited theatrical release on July 29, is immediately available to subscribers the same day. It’s a happy development that such high-wire performances are visible from both the art house and home.

–DANIEL D’ADDARIO