A 17 year old high school student starts writing poetry to recover from her parents’ death in a murder-suicide; when everything falls apart for her, though, she makes a radical decision in the name of ‘truth” that could have drastic consequences.

SYNOPSIS:

From Professional Coverage:

Lila Storm (17) believes, as a poet, it’s her job to put herself out there. She uses her

poetry to express and alleviate the unfathomable suffering she feels in the wake of her

parents’ murder-suicide, but when she puts down the pen and picks up her father’s gun,

it’s impossible to predict where things will end. Each major character in Blue Kiss is a

victim in his or her own way, and the audience can only hope for healing catharsis at the

end of the story, rather than compounded tragedy.

Lila is relatable and engaging. We sympathize with her because of so many details in the

writing. Her many names – Lila, Susan, Janis – reflect a teen identity crisis that’s so

familiar to us, and made all the more troubling by her past. The high school social

hierarchy, with its longing, betrayal, alienation, and gut-wrenching disappointment is

usually only remembered nostalgically for an audience, but in Blue Kiss, the underlying

emotional damage at times manages to recreate that artificial world where everything was

life or death, and so real, when you’re 17.

When Mitchell, (17), the high school quarterback with his own suppressed dark side, falls for Lila,

there’s an almost John Hughes charm to it. It’s a 16 Candles-esque coming of age fantasy fulfillment

that offers Lila and Mitchell a brief escape, but it’s as though the violence of the ensuing 25 years has

tainted our All-American teen angst in a way that’s graphic and inescapable. Do we really know what

it’s like to be a teenager after Parkland and Sandy Hook?

A marketable Indie project needs a strong hook, preferably some aspect of the narrative

that grounds it in the present zeitgeist, and the more controversial, the better. Blue Kiss

takes on the aftermath of violence, and specifically gun violence. Lila’s obsession with

her father’s gun mirrors America’s obsession with guns. Her dilemma is our nation’s

dilemma: Will Lila hold onto her father’s gun for dear life and risk perpetuating the cycle

of violence? Or will she throw the gun away? Is violence contagious, or can we stop it?