Tick Tock Lullaby

Lisa Gornick is very assured of her point of view. The three films of hers I’ve seen are all written, directed and starring Gornick, who offers voice-over opinions and commentary on the events of the film and the nature of existence. Especially as an artist and writer who inhabits a marginalized identity, Gornick’s confidence in centralizing her experiences and thoughts is admirable. But of the three films of hers I’ve seen, Tick Tock Lullaby is the weakest. And after three movies of Gornick’s thoughts, it veers away from highlighting a marginalized voice as it becomes so specifically about Lisa Gornick as a person. She got so specific with her shit that she transcended her marginalized identity is what I’m saying. This should be good, but it can make for not super relatable viewing.

In Tick Tock Lullaby, Gornick plays Sasha. Like Gornick, Sasha does some visual art and often muses about it everyday occurrences. Sasha and her girlfriend, Maya decide to have a baby. So, Sasha’s musings focus on that. Sasha thinks about how easy it is for straight couples, her occasional desire to “have sex like a man” and also how weird and kind of gross sperm is. Of course, for a lesbian couple, baby making is less than straight forward. The women try and find a sperm donor who fits their requirements. Meanwhile, Maya’s sister, Fiona is also trying for a baby with her husband.

Yep, it’s another lesbian parenthood film. As ever, few movies in this subgenre stand out. Tick Tock Lullaby sure doesn’t. It isn’t old enough to get points on that metric, though I understand that Gornick probably felt cutting edge making a movie this frank about lesbian pregnancy in 2007. Though due to Gornick’s style of storytelling, it’s frank on a largely mental level. Realistic worries and reactions play throughout the film. Though other films like Two Mothers or even The Seed delve deeper into the difficulties of having a baby or the physical changes of pregnancy. Really, it’s a movie about a woman debating with herself if she wants a child. Some of the observations are funny or clever, but this topic overall isn’t super interesting to me. I don’t need to outsource thoughts about how sperm is kind of gross. My brain does that on its own.

Gornick’s most recent film, The Book of Gabrielle is a much stronger piece of work. Going from that movie to this one, you can see major improvement in how she uses the same basic character and story structure for her narratives. The Book of Gabrielle is much better at elements like the philosophical voice over and incorporating Gornick’s visual art. Gornick’s debut, Do I Love You? is also a stronger film, in my opinion. The topic is broader and more interesting to me personally, even if she’s still finding her way with the medium of film. As much as I said her experiences in Tick Tock Lullaby are too specific, the commonality of the topic also hurts it. Gornick’s own spin on lesbian pregnancy has individual quirk. However, the story follows far too much of the same pattern as numerous other films in this subgenre.

Tick Tock Lullaby presents an unusual point of view towards baby making, told from a character who is so certain in her experiences that she seems to forget she’s the odd one out here. I wish the film was frankly, odder and focused more on the actual actions needed to get pregnant if you’re in a same-sex couple. Instead, the film is largely abstract thoughts and discussion about such actions. Unfortunately, these thoughts often run too specific to be relatable but not specific enough to craft a particularly memorable main character. I would suggest trying both of Gornick’s other films over Tick Tock Lullaby.

Overall rating: 5.0/10

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