Neon Dreaming Review: Through a Child’s Eyes

Neon Dreaming sees an eight-year-old’s world turned upside down as Marie-Clare Marcotte adapts her own play about a girl discovering a secret about her mother.

Only when she takes the photo to school to talk about her family does a classmate reveal that they also have the same picture at home.

Neon Dreaming brings you down to little Billie’s level; it’s shot from her height, with adults either looking down at her or framed to appear larger than life. On one hand, she has a puzzle to solve: is her mum really a famous ballerina? On the other, she is faced with her first real case of deception. We are kept in the dark along with Billie, overhearing euphemisms and half-finished sentences that allude to her mother’s whereabouts without a concrete answer. It has the effect of being treated like a child, like Billie, who is shut out of adult conversations. Why not tell her? Why not tell us? 

There is an airy tweeness to Neon Dreaming that places it among the whimsical; Ken Loach this ain’t. The lights from the film’s title act as a mood ring of sorts for Billie, her room glowing with technicolor when her imagination springs to life. Taken as a whole, it is like a fairytale. Our young heroine even sets off on a perilous adventure at one point, certain she can traverse 10km in a harsh winter to where she suspects her mother now lives. 

This is a film of glimpses. We know nothing of Fred’s inner life, but we spot his panic attacks as he counts to ten and reaches for Marthe’s finger for comfort. Geneviève (standout Caroline Raynaud), Billie’s mum, has a smile that is as apologetic as it is loving, but to tell Billie the whole story of her last few years would be inappropriate. The curtain is pulled back for the audience more than for Billie, but Neon Dreaming works best when it treats both the same. Like Petite Maman, it is the immersion into the world of a child and trying to understand how they process what is happening around them that gives voice to the film’s ideas. 

There’s a cosiness to Neon Dreaming that shaves off most of its sharp edges. Knitwear and big coats combat the snow, and similarly ward off any threat of the film becoming too real. There’s a neatness to it all, the feeling it could all be wrapped up in a pretty bow. A child’s POV invites confusion, but playfulness too, like when Billie plans a spontaneous solo trip to Toronto – the other side of the province – with a suitcase the same size as our little protagonist based entirely on a hunch. 

But beneath the cosiness is a simmering tension. As answers slowly reveal themselves to Billie, does she even want to hear them? Worse, can she trust her dad and grandma anymore? It is when her mum, meeting her for the first time, breaks that tension by kneeling down to greet her – and us also – that Billie’s fragmented reality begins to crystallise again. Neon Dreaming is an adaptation of the director’s own play, which gives her new tools to bring an audience closer to Billie’s version of events. When it commits to seeing the world through the eyes of an eight-year-old whose entire world has just been turned upside down, it truly shines. 

Neon Dreaming will be screened at the Glasgow Film Festival on March 4, 2025. Read our Glasgow Film Festival reviews and our list of films to watch at the 2025 Glasgow Film Festival!