Turtles All the Way Down Review: The John Green Adaptation is a Powerful Portrayal of Life with OCD

Author John Green has a knack for putting readers in the shoes of complicated young adults, cancer patients The fault of our stars to the boarding school team Looking for Alaska. But in his 2017 novel Turtles at the bottomGreen penetrates deeper into the mind of its protagonist than in any of his other books; Given this, this is a necessity Turtles at the bottom Is all about thoughts. Intrusive thoughts, spiraling thoughts, panicked streams of consciousness – they’re all on the page, conveyed through the unforgettable narrative of 16-year-old Aza Holmes.

For Max’s film adaptation of Turtles at the bottomThe question arises: How do you translate all this interiority onto the screen? And director Hannah Marks is more than up to the challenge, creating a soulful portrait of mental illness as well as a touching coming-of-age story about friendship, first love and the occasional missing billionaire.

what is Turtles at the bottom around?

Turtles at the bottom welcomes us into the life of Aza Holmes (Isabela Merced, Madam Web), a high school student with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). She spends her time with her best friend Daisy (Cree, And just like that…); driving around in her beloved car, Harold; and philosophy lectures from Northwestern Professor Abbott (J. Smith-Cameron, Succession).

At least that’s what we see from the outside. Inside, Aza is a storm of worries and intrusive thoughts. The latter is a term that, like so much therapy language, has been used to describe something mundane that has nothing to do with the mental health context from which it comes. Still in there Turtles at the bottombased on Green’s own experience with OCD, these thoughts are specific, pervasive, and intense to the point of debilitation.

“Did you know that humans are 50% microbes?” Aza thinks offscreen as green microbes float across a dark screen. According to her, this means that 50% of our body is not ours – so who are we really?

Aza’s fixation on microbiology is not limited to her thoughts on consciousness. She is terrified of infection, especially C. diff. She uses plenty of hand sanitizer. She breaks and deflates a callus on her finger several times a day to prevent contamination. In these moments, no matter how hard she tries, it’s almost impossible to free her from a destructive spiral of thoughts – or Daisy, or her mother (Judy Reyes, Birth/rebirth) or her therapist (Poorna Jagannathan, I have never) – could.

As Aza struggles to come to terms with her own thoughts, adventure ensues when local billionaire Russell Pickett goes missing. There’s a hefty reward on the table – enough to pay her tuition at her dream school, Northwestern – And She has the added advantage of being Russell’s son Davis (Felix Mallard, Ginny and Georgia). The two met years ago at Sad Camp, a camp for children who have lost a parent, and she has had a crush on him ever since.

With a little encouragement from the much more adventurous Daisy, Aza sets out to find Russell and inevitably runs into Davis again. And while the hunt for Russell and the romance with Davis are certainly elements of that Turtles at the bottom, they are by no means the focus. In fact, they fade into the background pretty quickly. The resulting display is uneven, but still offers space for something Turtles at the bottom really cares about what’s going on in Aza’s head.

Turtles at the bottomThe portrayal of mental illness will stay with you.

Isabela Merced in Turtles All the Way Down.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Max

As in Green’s novel, Turtles at the bottom ensures you’re inside Aza’s head every step of her journey. Her voice-over is almost constant and transports you into every spiral of her thoughts. Marks also often uses the microbial images. Eerie shots of bacteria flash on the screen like miniature jump scares. To see her is to be afraid, and to be afraid is to feel like Aza in those moments.

Perhaps most touching are the scenes in which Aza breaks her calluses and changes the plaster she uses to cover them. Quick cuts show Aza digging her nail into her hand, small amounts of blood, and the pained twitching on her face. As someone who finds it very difficult to see even the smallest hand injuries on screen, there were several instances where I had to pause the film to quell my nausea. Reading the novel, I had exactly the same experience – one of Aza’s feelings was expressed so clearly that her worries and physical reactions disappeared from the page. It can seem overwhelming at times, both in the film and in the book, but that’s the sensation Turtles at the bottom tries to capture how big these feelings can get and how omnipresent they are in the worst case scenario.

Merced does an admirable job here as Aza, with a grounded performance that never veers into caricature. And while the film’s romance connects her to Davis, Turtles at the bottom“‘s true love story is the friendship between her and Daisy. There is good chemistry between Merced and Cree, with Cree’s pleasantly exuberant energy serving as a perfect complement to Merced’s more subdued turn. One of the film’s most heartbreaking scenes is a fierce fight between the two, and one of the sweetest moments is a hopeful scene where Daisy encourages Aza.

But even then, Turtles at the bottom don’t talk to us from below. There are no nice answers or ideas that Aza will never experience a thought spiral again. However, the film gives us hope that she will find fulfillment in her life and relationships. And after spending time weathering the storm of her thoughts alongside her, it’s a must-hear, whether you’re familiar with Aza’s experience or not.

Turtles at the bottom is now streaming on Max.