Mixtape

Mixtape (2021) is a gentle family comedy you can watch online on iFILM. On the eve of Y2K, 12-year-old Beverly digs out a cracked cassette her parents recorded as teenagers — both gone since she was small.

Raised by a grandmother who can't bring herself to talk about her late daughter, Beverly sets out to rebuild the ruined tape song by song. Each track sends her to someone who knew her mom and dad — a record-store clerk, an old classmate, a neighbor with a long memory. Julie Bowen plays the grandmother; newcomer Gemma Brooke Allen carries the film as Beverly.

Director Valerie Weiss keeps it small and warm: no big twists, just a kid using a playlist to meet the parents she barely got to know. The late-nineties details — punk records, sidewalk chalk, a dial-up house — do the real emotional work. Stream Mixtape (2021) online on iFILM.