Blame (2017 film)


Blame is a 2017 American teen psychological drama film written, co-produced, edited, and directed by Quinn Shephard, who also stars alongside Nadia Alexander, Tate Donovan, and Chris Messina. The film is Shephard's feature film directorial debut. It screened at several film festivals, including at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it was nominated for several awards and won the award for Best Actress in a US Narrative Feature.

Premise

A drama teacher's taboo relationship with an unstable and beautiful student strikes a nerve in her jealous classmate, sparking a vengeful chain of events within their suburban high school that parallel events in The Crucible.

Cast

Shephard developed the script for several years. In 2016, after her financier fell through during the first week of shooting, Shephard partially self-financed Blame using money from her college fund and with help from her mother. The film was shot in 19 days in the fall of 2015 in Shepard's hometown of Metuchen, New Jersey.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. On Metacritic, the film received a score of 54 out of 100, based on 10 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
IndieWire called it a "solid debut", while writing that, though it "isn't fully realized", it establishes Shephard as "someone to watch". Glenn Kenny of The New York Times described the film as "earnest but underdeveloped". Filmmaker magazine called the film "a poignant and incisive examination of modern American adolescence." The Hollywood Reporter called it "a mixed bag of a directorial debut".
At the Tribeca Film Festival, the film was nominated for several awards and won the award for Best Actress in a US Narrative Feature. Blame was also a featured in the Montclair Film Festival 2017 and the Greenwich International Film Festival 2017.