Nocturne Parent Guide

Twins Juliet (Sydney Sweeney) and Vivian (Madison Iseman) are both talented pianists at a prestigious performing arts high school but that’s where the similarities end. Vivian is driven, extroverted, and highly competitive, and Juliet is far more reserved. Following the tragic suicide of fellow student Moira (Ji Eun Hwang), the lead spot for the annual concert has opened up, and the two sisters are now direct competitors. But Juliet has a trick up her sleeve – Moira’s bizarre and unsettling notebook, which seems to provide secrets to success, but at a steep price…

Although the film advertises the story as some kind of Faustian bargain, this is less about selling your soul to the devil for a few years of music and fast living, and more about the little things people sell out to succeed. All of Juliet’s small cruelties stack higher and higher, alienating her not only from her family and her teachers, but from the person she used to be. I think this is far more compelling than one of those “Whoops, sold my soul to Satan to win my high-school trophy!” kind of stories.

Not that Nocturne is something you’re going to want to watch with your teenager. It manages to pack in some unpleasantly graphic teen sex (although thankfully without nudity), extensive profanity, gory deaths, and some surprisingly high-test teen drug use. My least favorite scene involved a student finding a handful of used tampons in their mailbox – charming, right? It’s particularly unsavory to have teen characters involved in these content issues. Even aging up the cast and setting the story in college would provide some improvement – although not nearly enough. (There’s really nothing you can do to make a mailbox full of used tampons any less unpleasant short of cutting the scene.)

While this is on the more atmospheric-thriller end of things (which I tend to prefer), there are simply too many content concerns involved for me to be able to really recommend this to anyone. I suppose genre fans might find it interesting, but I can’t imagine that this has especially broad appeal to mainstream audiences. There are other thrillers with fewer issues and just as much atmospheric tension and intrigue, and even some with some good music. And for non-genre fans, I’m sure there are easier ways to spend an hour and a half that don’t involve grisly suicides. At least, I’d sure hope there are.