Dandelion – Review and Summary
A young woman in foster care tries the patience of an adult trying to find her somewhere to live, even if just to her 18th birthday.
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“Dandelion” Film Details
- Runtime: 0 Hour(s) and 19 Minutes
- Seen Via: Film Festival – NewFest (More Coverage Of The 2025 Film Festival)
- Released On: Digital
- Public Release Date: October 9, 2025
- Director(s): Fiona Obertinca
- Writer(s): Corey Pinchoff
- Primary Language: English
- Genre(s): Comedy, Young Adult, LGBT+, Historical (1970s)
- Rating: Not Rated
- Distributor: NewFest
- Official Site Link
Movie Summary
17-year-old Margaret lives in Los Angeles in 1972 and is in the system, the foster system. She just blew up her most recent placement, and this leads to Joyce being called to help. But, Margaret doesn’t make Joyce’s volunteer job easy, and they spend most of the day, into the night, trying to find someone who will accept Margaret into their home – even if just until she turns 18.
Cast and Characters
Margaret (Ava Lalazarzadeh)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Queer, 17, a rebel, Margaret hasn’t had the easiest teenage years, but as Joyce notes, she is a fighter. Hence why the nuns beat her knuckles to the point of them bleeding.
Joyce (Vic Michaelis)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Joyce is a volunteer for an organization that tries to find homes for queer foster kids, but is also immensely private about being queer herself. Thus making her seem like a White woman trying to earn her way into heaven by helping the disadvantaged.
What To Expect In “Dandelion” (Not Rated) – Content Overview
- Dialog:
- Cursing: Once or Twice
- Violence:
- Violence Against Children: Yes (Context: Margaret is hit, off-screen, by nuns and we see the damage they caused)
- Gore/ Blood/ Body Horror: Bleeding, Depiction of Open Wounds
- Miscellaneous:
- Drinking: Yes
Review and Commentary
Overall
Our Rating (85/100): Positive (Worth Seeing) – Recommended
Beyond seeing Lalezarzadeh again, after seeing her on Apple TV’s Before, and when she was in the play English in New York City, what is also enjoyable about Dandelion is that it functions as good edutainment. Learning there was an advocacy group for queer youth, potentially run by older (20s and 30s) queer people with an entire network who would take them in, is the kind of history that is interesting and worth exhibiting beyond a documentary style.
What makes Danelion special, though, is that, beyond the facts at the basis of it, we also get a truly engaging connection between Margaret and Joyce. Granted, it is a short, so things only go so far, like not knowing the events up to Margaret being 13 and losing her original home. Never mind what led Joyce to volunteer for the organization.
Yet, even without the details most shorts miss, there is a connection built here that makes you take note of the actors and those behind the camera, since the question of what they could do with more time, considering what they did with only 19 minutes, comes to the forefront.
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