As the lights came up at the TIFF ’19 premiere screening of TAMMY’S ALWAYS DYING, screenwriter Joanne Sarazen expressed her desire to portray a family that expresses their love through brutality.

If that was the artist’s mission, then mission accomplished. The only question that remains unanswered is whether the audience wishes to be brutalized.

TAMMY’S ALWAYS DYING is a bleak and beautiful debut feature by director Amy Jo Johnson.

It begins by literally walking us out on to the edge. As the credits roll we see bedraggled stockings and impossibly high heels walking out over the rail of a bridge in the cold of winter. It’s Tammy (Felicity Huffman), a woman who makes too little and drinks too much. Soon coaxing her down from the bridge is her daughter Kathy (Anastasia Phillips). Kathy keeps Tammy away from a lot of ledges in life – both physical and virtual, and she is growing weary of the dance.

Unfortunately for Kathy, things are about to get a whole lot messier and more complicated, as happens when life deals a new hand.

TAMMY’S ALWAYS DYING is a stark look at family dysfunction. It is fixated with the various ways people seek escape from their lot in life – be it a fifth of rye, or a quickie with a married paramour. The question becomes when one is escaping every day, what parts of their lives are they actually accepting anymore?

Phillips and Huffman are both unflinching in what they bring to their roles. They find ways to instil hope and break hearts, sometimes with the snap of a finger. Sometimes they find just the right words to cut each-other deeply, other times they get bloody with just a look.