It’s 1983 in Purgatory, and Beatrice (Ruby McGurrin) is living a typical teenage existence. As a student at a catholic school, she makes confession to the kindly Father Malone (J.K. Simmons), she hangs out with her friends, one who is being bullied, the other is in love with a boy. She plans her audition to play Mother Mary in the nativity play. And she goes to camp. 

And that’s when life completely derails for Bea. She returns from camp to news that her parents, Marianne (Abby Elliott) and Joe (John Reynolds), have separated. Marianne has moved out to find herself, leaving Joe in charge of the house and the children. Well, kind of. Marianne is a substitute teacher at the children’s school, so she still picks them up and drops them off. She tends to them during school. She’s just not in the house all the time. 

Unsurprisingly, Bea and her little sister Chloe (Lauren MacRae) react poorly to this sudden change. Bea hatches a plan to get her parents back together but is thwarted at every step by the fact that her mother very much doesn’t want to return. Bea also begins to question the adults around her, her friendships, and her faith in Catholicism. 

The 80s aesthetic in Purgatory is inescapable. The pouffy hair, the perms, and the hairspray are everywhere. Unless a character has short hair, their hair will be infinitely styled. Honestly, how were these people, no matter what gender, getting to work on time?

I like the way the film includes some hypocrisies that we still see when couples break up, but was definitely prevalent in the 80s. Marianne wanting to move on romantically is frowned upon by everyone, including most vociferously by Bea. However, Joe bringing over a PDA-loving co-worker is accepted. Joe even continues to coax his wife back, all while being with this other woman. But he grumbles about Marianne being with another man. It’s so hypocritical but these are the kind of stories we used to hear about the 80s, 90s, even now.

The sex education scene — because there had to be one in a coming-of-age film — was very well-written. It was much more layered than expected. The dialogue told us so much about the person delivering the ‘lesson’ and the issues with the abstinence-only approach. I also appreciated that the film didn’t treat it as a joke.

Unfortunately, Purgatory was just not for me. I’ve never been the biggest fan of coming-of-age stories, mainly because North American experiences are treated as universal. As someone coming from the Eastern side of the world, believe me, the films we saw of North American teenagers seemed like they were from another world.

But I did want to watch the film since it was written and directed by women. While the story does seem slightly different from films in the genre, there’s an over-reliance on reaching story beats rather than building towards them. As a result, we get scenes thrown at us that hurtle past emotional moments. A lot of scenes end suddenly without a satisfying, or any, conclusion, leaving me wondering what happened. We don’t see relationships develop or change as a result of the scenes we see.

There’s also a lot of telling instead of showing. The relationship between Marianne and Joe following their breakup leads to too many conversations that meander and go nowhere. It would have been better to see the weight that Marianne was carrying in the relationship, instead of one throwaway line about Joe not fixing the mailbox.

One would think with the film prioritizing reaching story beats that it would be pacey. But this is where Purgatory commits its biggest mistake — it was very slow and boring. When you start looking at your watch during a film, that’s a bad sign. Scenes dragged on, despite the sheer number of scenes in the film. There were cuts and edits every few minutes and yet, there was no movement. Maybe it’s because I kept hoping for something different to happen, something new? But every beat felt painfully familiar.

I don’t think it helped that the performances weren’t strong. Abby Elliott was good but I felt like I was watching her character from The Bear just in 80s outfits. I’ve never seen John Reynolds before but he looked like he was acting. His face also wasn’t as expressive, in comparison to Elliott’s. 

Newcomer McGurrin holds her own but her performance isn’t as natural as other child actors we’ve seen. She has a very expressive face and delivers her lines well, but it comes across like she’s memorized the lines.

In Purgatory, the biblical in-between space is defined as a momentary torture that would lead to a joyous heaven. 

Watching this film was like being in purgatory. I will never get the time back from such a boring, by-the-numbers plot, with forced performances. This film could have been a subversion of coming-of-age stories but it didn’t even try. 

Stay tuned for more reviews from the Toronto International Film Festival 2026.