6 balloons movie review

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6 Balloons review – grimly effective Netflix drama about heroin addiction

A tough-going 71-minute study of a woman, played by Abbi Jacobson, trying to help her brother cope with his drug problem

D uring the first 15 minutes of 6 Balloons, a low-budget drama premiering on Netflix , you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’re actually watching a sprightly hipster comedy. It’s not just the presence of Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson in the lead role but a lightness behind the scene-setting, an easy warmth that lures us in before the rug is pulled from underneath.

Katie (Jacobson) is a slightly nervy control freak trying to corral those around her to organize a surprise party for her boyfriend while resisting the urge to do it all herself. She’s determined for it to be perfect and when her father fails to pick up her brother Seth (Dave Franco), she heads out to get him instead. But when she arrives, she’s greeted with a red flag: his mail has mounted up, unopened. As he gets into her car, young daughter in tow, it becomes clear that Seth has relapsed. He’s a heroin addict whose brief stints in detox have failed to pull him out of the hole he’s made for himself and Katie soon realizes that her carefully constructed party plan for the day is in need of a major alteration.

There’s an involving matter-of-factness about 6 Balloons that makes the escalation of events feel grounded, with writer-director Marja-Lewis Ryan avoiding unnecessary conflict to amp up the story. At 71 minutes, there’s no time for anything extraneous, and while the slim running time does make it feel almost unfinished there’s enough here to distinguish it from other dramas within the addiction subgenre. The naturalistic interplay between brother and sister, complete with darkly funny barbs about the horrifying situation they’re in, means that we’re invested in, if not entirely understanding of, the decision-making that follows.

As the lighthearted quirkiness of the initial scenes fades, we’re soon plunged into nightmare territory as Katie is pulled further into the grim reality of her brother’s predicament, witnessing the sweaty, pleading disgust of his withdrawal and deciding to temporarily alleviate his pain with a fix. It’s in this middle section that the film really flies, a procession of tough scenes that might prove uncomfortable to watch, but they’re portrayed with such raw commitment that they linger long after the film ends.

What’s unusual yet important about the set-up is that here is a portrait of a middle-class heroin addict, surrounded by people who love and support him, at odds with the many portrayals we’ve grown accustomed to, abandoned, penniless and alone. It’s not a film about easy solutions and we’re under no illusions that what we see in the short running time is just a brief chapter in what may or may not be the start of a long road to recovery. Jacobson and Franco, who have both been most associated with their comedic work, have a comfortable chemistry together, veering between fractious tension and loving concern, and they help to flesh out the thinner elements of the film. Jacobson in particular makes a convincing case that she will enjoy a fulfilling career long after the end of Broad City.

There’s a rather ill-advised framing device used throughout that overlays self-help advice, almost like chapter openings, and it feels a bit clumsy and on-the-nose. It feels like a directorial decision made to avoid accusations of it all feeling a bit stagey, given that the film exists almost entirely in one location with the two siblings. At just over an hour, it feels worthy of expansion, but as a short, sharp reminder of the sprawling horror of addiction, it makes its point with a stinging sadness.

• 6 Balloons will stream on Netflix from 6 April
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In these times, hardly a family is untouched in some way by the opiate epidemic. As leaders of our church’s youth group, when my wife and I told the teens they could come to us with any issues — even when older and no longer a “youth” — little did we realize we would be counseling some of our “good kids” about how to deal with their opiate use. And in my medical practice (in a rural, out-of-the-way village), I had no idea I would be treating so many of my patients for addiction, as well as counseling parents how to deal with their children who were ensnarled in the tentacles of substance abuse. As a society we are facing a problem which is killing our adults and youth, the cost of which threatens to bankrupt our society as well as our social fabric . Seeing the deaths of the young teens and adults around me published in our small paper almost every week, and knowing what I am seeing is just a microcosm of what is happening across the USA, makes any film dealing in a real way with this overwhelming epidemic important to me.

The small movie 6 Balloons (only 74 minutes and having just a handful of notable characters) now streaming on Netflix was picked up by the media giant after receiving positive reviews at SXSW this year. Netflix quickly put it on their site with little publicity (as is often the case with thoughtful independent dramas). On Netflix, if it is not on the splash page most films soon lose the ability to rise among the crowd. That is a shame as this film deals in a realistic and thoughtful way with the issues of addiction, enablement and codependency.

“You’re On a Dock. You’ve Been There Before.”

6 Balloons has a unifying device of an audio-book, self-help meditative narration. The first words of the film — preceding any video other than a few opening studio credits — are spoken by a calm, almost hypnotic female voice “Welcome to Letting Go With Love. Chapter One: You’re on a dock. You’ve been there before…” As these lines are read, the troubled face of almost-middle-aged Katie (Abbi Jacobson) comes into focus. The sequence ends with the self-help narrator speaking of “gathering clouds,” “high winds,” and “unsteady seas,” and water splashes on our 4 th wall… our monitor.

Katie soon must leave to pick up her brother Seth who, it is understood without our being told, cannot drive. Seth also has visitation this holiday weekend from his lovely (3 year old?) daughter, Ella. Katie is immediately troubled with the appearance of Seth’s apartment (unopened mail scattered over the floor) and his own muted, ill-looking physical appearance. She soon asks him to roll up his sleeves to show her his antecubital areas — which Seth will not do. Katie realizes that Seth has, once again, fallen off the wagon and started using heroin… just like the last time. She sees that he is in withdrawal and she cannot have him at her party while he is “sick.”

Much of the rest of the film involves Katie’s efforts to get Seth into a detox and treatment center. When that cannot be accomplished, she reluctantly agrees to buy Seth a hit. Small amounts of heroin or “black” are often sold in tied off balloons, thus our title. She hopes the heroin will help Seth enough for the evening that she can still pull off her boyfriend’s long-planned birthday party, and then she will work on her brother’s problems “tomorrow.” Seth, due to his addiction, will need “6 balloons” to get out of withdrawal. The scenes of her buying heroin in the worst parts of LA are harrowing.

“You are Sinking. You are Drowning.”

The entirety of 6 Balloons covers one afternoon/evening — only a little more than the running time of the film. While there is little back-history of the characters, it would appear Katie’s closest family relationship is to her brother. Her father seems distant and her mother passive/aggressive (among a small garden of neuroses). And when Seth is with Katie, and he is not jonesing, they display the warm back-and-forth demonstrated by siblings who can say almost anything to each other, even being critical, with a loving smile.  But she has played the role of rescuer many times before and she is growing weary. Everyone else has given up on Seth, but she is the “good, responsible” daughter… the one on which everyone else can depend.

So Katie struggles with — once again — what to do about the problem in her life which dominates all others and which no one else will solve, or even try to do. At one point her boyfriend says “There’s nothing anyone can do for him, babe.” She replies “You want me to just leave him?” And of course, that is the dilemma hundreds of thousands of family members, spouses, children and friends face in this country. The absence of any reliance of faith in Katie’s family is noticeable (at least to me) but then, how much have our churches helped those families who are being devastated by substance abuse? In my experience some addicts can get clean individually (often using their personal God-relationship) but most need medical treatment — and most of them need that treatment more than once. It is demoralizing and exhausting for all involved.

The device of the self-help narration continues throughout 6 Balloons all the way up to the last chapter of the audio book — ten. Some viewers have found this device to be annoying but for me it was thought provoking. It reveals Katie’s inner voice as she struggles with what is her “duty” as a daughter, sibling, and aunt – and how far she should go out of unconditional love. When does the “unconditional” become counterproductive? It is interesting to contrast the self-help voice with the GPS voice in Katie’s car as she drives around Los Angeles. When she diverts her route from taking Seth to a detox center and instead cruises skid-row to buy him heroin, the GPS voice urges her to “Turn Around.”  When Ella becomes aware of her frightening surroundings from her child’s rear seat, she too begs “Turn around.”

Comedic Actors Turned Dramatic

Katie is portrayed by Abbi Jacobson, a comedic actor known primarily for co-creating and co-starring in Comedy Channel’s “Broad City.” This appears to be her first serious dramatic role and she is impressive. I was deeply affected with the depiction of her conflicted character. Likewise Seth is acted by Dave Franco who is known for his comedic and light roles ( The Neighbors movies, Now You See Me movies) — as well as being James Franco’s brother. He has said that losing the weight and getting into the addict’s frame of mind for this film made him difficult to be around during the entire shoot and left some enduring scars. His portrayal of the highs and lows of addiction — the inevitable swings in mood and behavior — is indelible.

This is director and writer Marja-Lewis Ryan’s first major film. While some may quibble with her repeated use of soft-focus and the “small” nature of the story told, I find it resonates to those who have seen substance abuse up-close and personal. The story is said to be based on the brother of one of the film’s producers which may be why it seems so authentic. Ryan was daring, I think, in her use of the self-help narrative device as well as her focus on two people with only deduced back stories. I also admire the story being told in a decidedly lower middle class family — there are no elegant houses or impressive cars. This is addiction in our community, among people who go to work every day and hope to retire at some point with a little peace in their lives. Addiction destroys those plans.

One More Step Toward Understanding

Some have found this film bland and boring. I do not. This very mature and adult film portrays a family’s struggle with this devastating plague. It illustrates with compassion but understanding what it means to enable someone and the hazy lines which one must decide to cross — or not. There are no facile solutions that some might be seeking. There can be a point where people may have to draw back and say “I have done enough. For my own health and the other relationships in my life, I need to set an end point and accept that I can go no further.” But then there is that pesky 1 Corinthians 13 chapter . 6 Balloon helps us understand that dilemma, despite giving no easy answers.

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A recently retired physician in the small village of Sheridan, Michigan, Ron Steury has lived in the same house and village his entire professional life. He and his wife Barbara first moved there 42 years ago. He has loved the cinema his whole life and one of the highlights of each year is attending the Traverse City Film Festival where he, with his wife and two daughters and their families, will see around 20 films in 5 days. At his small Sheridan Congregational church, Barb and he led the youth group for over 20 years, instituting the young people viewing movies and discussing their theological implications. He loves God, his family, their dog Artemis, and all things Purdue. God has blessed him to have his spouse of 52 years still be his best friend, viewing buddy, and most discerning critic.

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Full disclosure: This movie touches on so much, and in sometimes subtle but profound ways, that I can only put a small amount of what I thought into words… and…

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‘6 Balloons’ Review: Dave Franco and Abbi Jacobson Get Serious in a Netflix Heroin Drama that Never Pops

David ehrlich.

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There’s something vaguely sinister about those talking GPS navigators that now seem to come standard with every new car. Maybe it’s the robotic voice, which could never speak to the frustration of running late or sitting in traffic. More likely, it’s the illusion of control — the false sense that everything is going to be fine so long as you follow instructions and keep your eyes on the road.

Marja-Lewis Ryan’s “ 6 Balloons ” hinges on such modern details of disquiet, with most of this perceptive (if not especially powerful) drama set inside a chatty sedan as a woman named Katie (“Broad City” star Abbi Jacobson ) drives her heroin-addict brother ( Dave Franco ) around Santa Clarita in a desperate search for the help he needs. The GPS is so talkative that it occasionally feels like the car might have more lines than any of the actual characters. It says “Turn right here” and “turn left there,” the voice reorienting us like an automated Greek chorus (“turn around,” it pleads when Katie steers into a drug-infested alley). Over time, the sheer confidence of the computer’s flat monotone provides a harsh contrast to Katie’s anxiety, perhaps even amplifying it in some ways — the more well-ordered the world becomes, the deeper we feel our individual discords.

Based on the experiences of producer Samantha Housman, “6 Balloons” is too short and stunted to leave much of an impression, but the film convincingly illustrates one of the core truths about addiction: It doesn’t really give a shit about your agenda. It’s chaos, it cares only about itself, and it feeds on collateral damage. Addiction isn’t separate from everyday life, or parallel to it — it’s intertwined, totally enmeshed, and pulling at either end only tightens the knots.

Katie doesn’t need to be reminded. She’s been down that road before. So far as we can tell, she’s the only member of her family who still talks to her younger brother, Seth. A control-freak so determined to make everything just right that she actually threatens to re-roll the pigs in a blanket that a friend baked for her, Katie just can’t seem to accept that her brother is beyond saving. And when Seth doesn’t show up to the surprise birthday shindig that she’s planning for her boyfriend, it’s naturally up to Katie to leave her own party and go see what’s keeping him. When she gets to his apartment, there’s mail piled up on the floor. And so — with her cell phone blowing up with messages from the friends and family she left at home — Katie, Seth, and his toddler daughter Ella (Charlotte and Madeline Carel) hop in the car in search of help.

What initially seems poised to become a journey through the byzantine world of methadone clinics and emergency rehab centers sputters into something even more desperate (and potentially more compelling) when insurance problems force Seth to take more drastic measures. Essentially, Katie needs to find her strung out sibling a fix, or the withdrawal might get the better of him. It’s an involving dilemma, and one that’s dramatized here with a painful hint of personal experience.

The dynamic between Katie and Seth is lived-in and estranged; they bicker with the no-bullshit honesty that siblings develop like a secret language, even if the writing isn’t sharp enough to bring us into the fold. Franco spends a lot of the movie sweating in the backseat, but does so with a real hurt and self-loathing etched across his face. “I’m a piece of shit,” he offers to his sister as an excuse, and you can tell that he means it. The more that Seth gets what he wants, the more heartbreaking Franco’s performance becomes.

Jacobson carries most of the movie on her shoulders, displaying a strength that’s always bubbled just beneath the surface of her comedic work on “Broad City.” Her desperation is achingly believable from the start, and her nuanced portrayal is shaded with a pallid kind of love as Katie’s concern for her brother twists her into an accomplice. The decision to cast traditionally comedic actors in the two lead roles further cements the idea that addiction can happen to anyone — you can picture these two being hilarious together, the people they could be hanging over the movie like a heavy fog.

It’s a shame, then, that “6 Balloons” undercuts its characters. Running an inexplicably brief 71 minutes, the film — easy to imagine as an intense, real-time account — is clipped and abbreviated from the start. A lot of the movie feels like its own CliffsNotes, like we’re hearing it secondhand. The scenes between Katie and Seth are cut down to their most basic elements, welded together with a mush of overbearing music, and diluted further by a leaden voiceover track (passages from a self-help audiobook that too conveniently speak to Katie’s predicament).

It’s a testament to Ryan’s talents that the movie works best when it slows down and zeroes in on the details (a poignant sequence in a pharmacy bathroom is particularly well-staged), but the frequent retreats into familiar indie tropes grow all the more nauseating once we recognize the unrealized potential on display. Much like its frazzled protagonist, “6 Balloons” has a strong sense of direction, but the film is too constricted to let go, embrace the detours, and allow life to takes it course.

“6 Balloons” is now streaming on Netflix.

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‘6 balloons’: film review | sxsw 2018.

Abbi Jacobson stars as the sister of a heroin addict (played by Dave Franco) in Marja-Lewis Ryan's drama '6 Balloons,' which premiered at SXSW.

By Jon Frosch

Senior Editor, Reviews

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Taking a break from the giddy antics of her delicious Comedy Central series Broad City , Abbi Jacobson goes persuasively dark as the stressed-out sister of a heroin addict ( Dave Franco ) in 6 Balloons . The actress is the most compelling reason to seek out this affecting, if not particularly surprising or satisfying drama, which premieres April 6 on Netflix following its recent bow at SXSW .

Written and directed by Marja Lewis-Ryan and based on the experience of producer Samantha Houseman, 6 Balloons has other things to recommend it — most notably, a couple of tense, well-shaped sequences and a vivid nocturnal-L.A.-underbelly vibe. But Ryan often bumps up against the limitations of the subgenre she’s working in. Big and small screens have long been littered with attractively strung-out folks shooting up, writhing through withdrawal, shuffling around rehab and reckoning with loved ones; it’s hard to make an addiction narrative feel fresh. Throw in a few amateurishly heavy-handed directorial choices, and 6 Balloons has a lot of baggage to overcome.

Release date: Apr 06, 2018

What gives the movie a faint glimmer of novelty is that it focuses on the enabler rather than the user. We’re therefore spared, for the most part, the usual visual clichés : the spoon-and-syringe routine, the eyes closing in ecstasy, the first-person images of woozy euphoria. Films like Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream nailed the transformative power of the high; what 6 Balloons captures, with a kind of gloomy integrity, is the sheer exhaustion of being the closest person to an addict — the draining cycles of anger, guilt and heartbreak, as well as the isolation.

As the film opens, Katie (Jacobson) is navigating a flurry of preparations for a surprise party she’s throwing her boyfriend that evening. With a few deft strokes, the filmmaker suggests the protagonist’s scrupulously responsible, unselfish nature. Opening close-ups show her stricken-looking and listening to a self-help tape, but she puts on a perkier face when she meets up with her mom (Jane Kaczmarek ), noting that she’s 15 minutes early. Soon after, a friend asks Katie whether a certain dress is too short for the occasion, and she gently advises, “If you have to ask, maybe it’s not the best choice.” By emphasizing the character’s level-headedness, Ryan raises the stakes, ensuring that we’ll understand, when the time comes, how wrenching it is for Katie to have to violate her own ethical code in order to help her brother.

Katie goes to pick up Seth (Franco) and his 4-year-old daughter Ella (played by twins Charlotte and Madeline Carel ), and we sense something’s off as soon as she enters the apartment complex. Ryan shoots Jacobson walking up the stairwell with horror-film trepidation, and hints of dread and resignation flash across Katie’s face when she spots a pile of unopened mail on Seth’s floor.

We quickly learn that Seth is a former heroin addict who has recently relapsed and now finds himself in frantic need of a fix. Deeply unsettled — and annoyed — but ever the dutiful sister, Katie decides to immediately drop him off for a 10-day stint in detox. The first place they try doesn’t accept Seth’s insurance; the second refuses to admit him.

So begins the search for a treatment center — an odyssey complicated by Seth’s intensifying withdrawal symptoms, the agitated child in the back of the car and the birthday boy’s imminent arrival at the party Katie is supposed to be hosting (the increasingly frequent ding-ding of Katie’s incoming messages proves an effective tension-building device).

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Two stops along the way — one in Skid Row, where Katie picks up drugs for Seth as he squirms in the car; another when Katie buys a needle from an antagonistic pharmacist — make for the strongest, most harrowing stretches of the movie. It’s in these sequences that Ryan’s filmmaking rises above a certain indie-drama ho-hum-ness (lots of handheld camerawork and images that drift in and out of focus): Especially haunting is an overhead shot in the pharmacy bathroom that juxtaposes Katie changing Ella’s diaper with Seth shooting up in a stall — a bluntly powerful tableau of the addict/enabler dynamic.

Jacobson and Franco have a lived-in sibling rapport, careening from affectionate jokiness to scorching resentment and back again. Wisely, Jacobson doesn’t repress her comic instincts, as many comedians do in dramatic parts (to often tedious effect); she channels them into the character, letting Katie’s anxiety leak out in quippy starts and stops. And though drugged-out desperation is a familiar beat to play, Franco brings his own boyishly needy edge to the role. We get why Katie has such a hard time practicing the “tough” half of “tough love” with him.

Ryan’s major misstep is the water motif she incorporates via audio snippets of Katie’s self-help tape (it’s all about whether or not to “board the boat,” or something), sound design (periodic bubbly, under-the-sea noises) and thuddingly literal glimpses of the two main characters submerged. It’s a jarringly on-the-nose, student-film-level element that’s superfluous to the movie’s story and impact.

What stays with you is Jacobson’s grippingly understated lead turn, which promises a fruitful screen life beyond Broad City .

Production companies: Campfire, Free Association Distributor: Netflix Writer-director: Marja-Lewis Ryan Cast: Abbi Jacobson, Dave Franco, Charlotte Carel , Madeline Carel , Maya Erskine, Dawan Owens, Jen Tullock , Lisa Bierman , Pierce Minor, Heidi Sulzman , Tim Matheson , Jane Kaczmarek Producers: Samantha Houseman, Ross M. Dinerstein , Reid Carolin , Peter Kiernan , Channing Tatum Executive producers: Ian Bricke , Lynette Howell Taylor Cinematographer: Polly Morgan Music: Heather McIntosh Editor: Brian Scofield Production designer: Michael Fitzgerald Casting: John McAlary Venue: SXSW Film Festival

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Raw look at heartbreaking effects of addiction; drug use.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Emphasizes that loved ones have no ultimate contro

Central character is determined to rescue her brot

Character launches keys at glass pharmacy door, ru

Frequent profanity: "f--k," "s--t,&

Scenes set in a 99 Cent Store, DeSoto Pharmacy.

Centers on drug-addicted young father and his unsu

Parents need to know that 6 Balloons is a powerful 75-minute tale of drug addiction and is for mature viewers only. Taking place in almost real-time, the story depicts a loving sister desperately trying to save her brother during a painful withdrawal from heroin while in the company of his vulnerable toddler…

Positive Messages

Emphasizes that loved ones have no ultimate control over drug users. Despite intention and commitment, failure is a constant. Giving up responsibility for those in the throes of self-destruction is finally liberating and doesn't deny concern.

Positive Role Models

Central character is determined to rescue her brother and his child. She is courageous, compassionate, persevering, and resourceful in her efforts. Only after continued missteps does she recognize how powerless she is.

Violence & Scariness

Character launches keys at glass pharmacy door, runs when alarm sounds.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent profanity: "f--k," "s--t," "pissed off," "butt," "Jesus," "bastard." Potty references: poopy diaper, peeing, vomiting.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

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Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Centers on drug-addicted young father and his unsuccessful efforts to get clean. On-screen heroin use. He is seen in the painful throes of withdrawal and in a hyper state after shooting up.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that 6 Balloons is a powerful 75-minute tale of drug addiction and is for mature viewers only. Taking place in almost real-time, the story depicts a loving sister desperately trying to save her brother during a painful withdrawal from heroin while in the company of his vulnerable toddler daughter. The withdrawal scenes are realistically chilling; the child is consistently at emotional risk; the sister is torn between her desire to fix her brother and her knowledge that it may not be possible. An explicit scene of drug use is excruciating, heightened by juxtaposition with an aunt taking care of a toddler's basic needs. Profanities are frequent and include "f--k," "s--t," and "bastard." Expect vomiting and assorted visuals of a child's poop. This is an adult movie, made with insight, realism, and attention to the smallest details of an agonizing situation in which no one is in control, and answers are hard to come by. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (3)

Based on 2 parent reviews

It is exactly what it is about

What's the story.

Katie ( Abbi Jacobson ) is breathlessly getting ready for a surprise party for her boyfriend as 6 BALLOONS opens. Friends and family are there to help, but Katie, the perfectionist, is as nervous as she is excited. When it becomes clear that her brother, Seth ( Dave Franco ), and his toddler daughter haven't arrived, Katie puts a hold on her own preparations and goes to Seth's to pick them up. What she finds is a Seth she knows too well. It quickly becomes evident that he's in the initial stages of heroin withdrawal ... again. Intensifying the moment is the fact that Seth's 2-year-old is wholly at the mercy of her unstable father's condition. What follows are a few frantic hours during which Katie, in the role of sister, caretaker, and parent to both the child and the adult, attempts to do the right thing, even if it involves a desperate stop at a rehab facility, a stealthy visit to a drug-riddled neighborhood, and a harrowing encounter in a pharmacy.

Is It Any Good?

There aren't too many new ways of putting drug addiction under a filmed microscope, but writer-director Marja-Lewis Ryan has created an original, affecting drama that will both disturb and inspire. Relying on a singularly restrained yet powerful performance from Jacobson, best known for her in-your-face comedy on Broad City (which she co-created), Ryan tells an intimate, shattering tale. Franco delivers in the role of the desperate, self-destructive brother with so much at stake, and toddler twins Charlotte and Madeline Carel as Ella don't act; they simply break your heart. Some may find Ryan's inclusion of a self-help audio tape distracting or artificial, but it builds confidently and proves to be a wise, even audacious choice.

6 Balloons is a short film -- 75 minutes -- but tellingly, first-timer Ryan realized there was no need to give the characters any overt backstory. Job history, old grievances, and Seth's marital trials simply don't matter. What's clear is that Katie has been through this ordeal of "saving" her brother over and over again. What's less clear is whether or not Seth will ultimately take responsibility and be able to save himself. And that's a truth this thoughtful film doesn't try to answer.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the realistic nature of 6 Balloons . How does such realism raise the stakes for audiences? Which specific scenes did writer-director Marja-Lewis Ryan create to keep the film as intimate as possible?

The film is said to be based on the true story of one of the film's producers. How does such a close, well-told look at one person's experience impact the lives of others? How do movies like this one become teachable moments?

Two "artificial" voices were used in this film: the narrator of the self-help book and the navigation system voice. How did either or both voices affect you? Did you find them distracting? Jarring? Enlightening? By the end of the film, did you understand the writer-director's intention in including them? Was she successful?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : April 6, 2018
• Cast : Abbi Jacobson , Dave Franco , Jane Kaczmarek
• Director : Marja-Lewis Ryan
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Brothers and Sisters
• Character Strengths : Compassion , Courage
• Run time : 75 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : February 18, 2023

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6 Balloons is a flawed but affecting addiction drama: EW review

Leah Greenblatt is the critic at large at Entertainment Weekly , covering movies, music, books, and theater. She is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and has been writing for EW since 2004.

Most addiction stories can really only end in two ways: recovery, or death. 6 Balloons — a fraught, intimate drama that unfolds in near-real time over the course of one day in L.A. — waits until nearly the final frame to make clear which side it will fall on. And even then, it’s more a stop-gap than an end.

Abbi Jacobson (in a role far from her Broad City shenanigans) is Katie, a thirtyish Angelino planning a surprise party for her boyfriend, Jack (Dawan Owens). Contained and quietly sardonic, she’s the kind of low-key Type A who listens to self-help audiotapes and re-rolls the dough on her pigs in a blanket when a friend wraps them too casually.

A morning full of ordinary pre-party errands — buying decorations, stocking the cooler, finding just the right festive outfit — eventually segues to picking up her brother Seth ( The Disaster Artist’ s Dave Franco) and his toddler daughter, Ella (played by twins Charlotte and Madeline Carel). Seth is the all-id yin to her uptight yang: Loose and goofy and breezily dismissive of the rules. It’s also clear pretty quickly that he’s going into heavy withdrawal from heroin.

Katie’s game-time decision to take him straight to a treatment center or see the party through and deal with the fallout later becomes the crux of Balloons ’ dramatic tension, as much as it has some. What the story really feels like it’s about, though, is the endless, disorienting dance between addicts and the people who love them. Seth is selfish and maddening and kind of a mess; he’s also charming and funny and brings out a reckless joy in Katie that she doesn’t show anyone else.

Writer-director Marja-Lewis Ryan (whose next project, incongruously, is the slated Splash reboot with Channing Tatum and Jillian Bell) gracefully unfolds the ongoing push-pull of Seth and Katie’s relationship, and doesn’t turn away from the uglier scatalogical realities of using. Where she stumbles is in the heavy indie-moviemaking-101 signifiers, especially the self-help narrator’s voice as a recurring, thuddingly obvious metaphor for what’s happening onscreen. At just over 70 minutes, Balloons feels more like a sketch or a character study than a fully realized film, but it’s an affecting sketch nonetheless. B

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SXSW Film Review: ‘6 Balloons’

Fraying family ties between a backsliding heroin addict and his enabling sister are at the heart of Marja-Lewis Ryan's powerful drama.

By Joe Leydon

Film Critic

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By turns intensely naturalistic and brutally stylized, “ 6 Balloons ” mercilessly turns screws and escalates dread while spinning a worst-case scenario about the fraying family ties between a heroin addict, who’s chronically incapable of curbing his self-destructive appetite, and his sister, who’s buckling under the weight of the latest in a long series of his impossible demands.

Writer-director Marja-Lewis Ryan drew upon the real-life experiences of producer Samantha Housman while developing her edgy scenario, and audaciously cast in the lead roles two actors best known for their work in comedy — Abbi Jacobson (of “Broad City”) and Dave Franco . The movie leaves you with a deep respect for the willingness evidenced by Ryan and her collaborators to take several gambles that pay off dramatically and emotionally. But be forewarned: If your own experiences mirror in any way what unfolds in “6 Balloons,” it also will leave you more than a little bruised.

Katie (Jacobson) is busy preparing a surprise party for her boyfriend, with the help her mother (Jane Kaczmarski) and father (Tim Matheson) and a coterie of close friends, when she notices that her brother Seth (Franco) and his toddler daughter Ella (played alternately by twin sisters Charlotte and Madeline Carel) are late in arriving. When she can’t reach Seth on his cellphone, it’s easy to read in her worried expression that she knows what that probably means. So, using the pretext of running out for a birthday cake, she drives over to his apartment, where she immediately notices that Seth hasn’t been picking up his mail. She   knows what that  definitely means.

Sure enough, Seth has been using again. At first, he claims he hasn’t, but Katie won’t buy it, and their give-and-take sounds unmistakably like a conversation they’ve had a zillion times before. Indeed, Katie already has come to fear she may be dragged down by her brother into his private corner of hell. She wants to “let go with love,” as she’s encouraged by the self-help audiotape she plays in her car throughout the movie. (That may sound like a heavy-handed touch, but be patient: It builds to something powerful.) She wants to stop being Seth’s enabler. She wants to save herself.

But, of course, she acquiesces when he asks her to take him in for detox.

“6 Balloons,” which will start streaming April 6 on Netflix, clocks in at a tight 74 minutes. But it feels as though it’s gradually expanding to the enormity of a wide-awake nightmare as it follows Katie and Seth — and, in the backseat, Ella — along a circuitous L.A. roadway paved with good intentions and desperate measures. Stops along the way include a frustrating visit to a clinic that won’t accept Seth’s insurance; a paranoia-ratcheting side trip to an inner-city marketplace for unprescribed medications; and a near-closing-time interlude in the bathroom of a drug store, a sequence both darkly comical and grippingly suspenseful as Seth and Ella simultaneously require attention while a disapproving pharmacist (Heidi Sulzman, making every second count in a fleeting role) hovers nearby.

You can’t help feeling that something terrible will happen at any moment, unless something worse happens first.

A textbook example of pared-to-essentials storytelling, “6 Balloons” tells us only what we absolutely need to know about Katie, Seth and their shared history, and requires us to infer just about everything else. Fortunately, that task is made appreciably easier by the remarkably exact performances by Jacobson and Franco.

Jacobson speaks volumes with anxious body language and quicksilver changes of expression, so that, even on those occasions when Seth appears cheery — maybe a little too aggressively cheery — Katie’s smile is merely tentative; obviously, she knows from experience that things can turn poisonously sour in a heartbeat. Franco persuasively plays Seth as an indulgent weakling who only partly camouflages his skills as a crafty manipulator. His mother and father have grown immune to his dubious charms, but he knows (or, to be more precise, hopes) that his sister remains an endless source of sympathy.

Ryan, who first attracted notice in 2010 by writing and co-starring in “The Four-Faced Liar,” a well-received, sexually flexible romantic comedy, never attempts to emulate Seth’s stealthiness here. From the opening minutes onward, she makes it clear that “6 Balloons” actually is a drama about two people straining to break free of crippling addictions. Perhaps the riskiest move she makes in the entire film is symbolically visualizing Katie’s struggle in a manner that could have come across as inadvertently comical. But she pulls it off, and the movie is all the more potent for it.

Reviewed at SXSW Film Festival (Narrative Spotlight), March 13, 2018. Running time: 74 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix release and presentation of a Campfire production in association with Free Association. Producers: Samantha Housman, Ross M. Dinerstein, Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin, Peter Kiernan. Executive producers: Ian Bricke, Lynette Howell Taylor.
• Crew: Director, Screenplay: Marja-Lewis Ryan. Camera (color): Polly Morgan. Editor: F. Brian Scofield. Music: Heather McIntosh.
• With: Abbi Jacobson, Dave Franco, Charlotte Carel, Madeline Carel, Maya Erskine, Dawan Owens, Jen Tullock, Lisa Bierman, Pierce Minor, Heidi Sulzman, Tim Matheson, Jane Kaczmarski.

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6 Balloons Reviews

This heroin drama falls flat in execution. It's drama is overwrought, as it constantly tries to stay one step above a low grade Lifetime movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 30, 2018

Franco and Jacobsen's on-screen relationship is utterly convincing not only in the forgiveness and sympathy we afford siblings but in showing how quickly we revert to the squabbling and resentments of childhood.

Full Review | Oct 16, 2018

Were 6 Balloons to be nothing more than an actor's showcase, it would work, unfortunately the rest of its pieces just never quite come together.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 16, 2018

A brief but unrelenting study in the toll love can take on the person closest to an addict.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2018

Jacobson does a fantastic job portraying someone who's at the end of her rope while still feeling like she has to do more.

Full Review | Aug 27, 2018

In truth, it is about an addict and how his behavior, rather than reverberate, transforms the lives of those who love and surround him. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | May 14, 2018

The movie is modest and honestly scaled - adult in the best sense.

Full Review | May 9, 2018

Jacobson's performance was nothing short of stunning.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2018

Franco has the showier junkie role, but Abbi Jacobson is the one you identify with, the long-suffering sister you want to hug and reassure

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 12, 2018

There aren't too many new ways of putting drug addiction under a filmed microscope, but writer-director Marja-Lewis Ryan has created an original, affecting drama that will both disturb and inspire.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 11, 2018

Much like its frazzled protagonist, 6 Balloons has a strong sense of direction, but the film is too constricted to let go, embrace the detours, and allow life to takes it course.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Apr 10, 2018

The narrative arc of 6 Balloons is not much either, a progression from positive to negative that leaves no space for a gray scale or ambiguity that might have added value to the story. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Apr 10, 2018

As a mood piece and character portrait, 6 Balloons is a strong debut for Ryan. But though it doesn't overstay its welcome, by the time the credits roll, 6 Balloons feels like it still has more to say.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Apr 9, 2018

6 Balloons is moody and moving, yet frustrating and clumsy and sometimes too on-the-nose.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 9, 2018

Though Katie's arc becomes fairly predictable by the last of 6 Balloons' breathless 74 minutes, the transparency of her character's development doesn't render it any less powerful.

Full Review | Apr 9, 2018

Sure, it's not easy to watch, but maybe that's exactly why you should.

Full Review | Apr 6, 2018

It's a compliment to first-time feature writer-director Marja-Lewis Ryan that we want more of what she has to offer.

At just over an hour, it feels worthy of expansion, but as a short, sharp reminder of the sprawling horror of addiction, it makes its point with a stinging sadness.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 6, 2018

It's a brief portrait with a devastating subject, but it feels unfinished, relying too often on well-worn techniques to complete an intimate study that may have simply needed a second pass.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 5, 2018

"6 Balloons" is wrenching stuff, but it offers points of behavioral illumination to enhance the viewing experience, and there's Franco doing his best work to date.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Apr 4, 2018

Den of Geek

6 Balloons Review

Truthful performances and a heartfelt story still don't come together to fill in the gaps in this indie about addiction.

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At every film festival, you come across movies with genuine heart and soulful performances. The kind where one intuitively understands the sincerity that is emanating from the director, who seems to be speaking from a place of knowing, tangible pain. It is also these earnest qualities makes such a film’s narrative limitations and underdeveloped indie structure all the more unpleasant to note, as is the case with 6 Balloons , writer-director Marja-Lewis Ryan’s intimate if somewhat empty debut at SXSW that still boasts two sorrowful performances by Abbi Jacobson and Dave Franco.

Premiering this week on Netflix, 6 Balloons is the familiar and eternal story of addiction, and how it not only shatters one life, but all those around it. Delicately sketched, if without much definition, the film articulates the anguish felt by family members who can do little more than sit back and watch or otherwise risk enabling the self-destruction.

The chief enabler of the film is Katie (Jacobson), the sister and aunt who acts much more like a mother to her brother’s daughter. That is because Seth (Franco) is supposedly a former heroin addict, yet is really a ticking time bomb until he starts using again—a detonation that apparent has already happened before the film begins. Despite Katie trying to launch a surprise birthday party for her boyfriend Jack (Dawan Owens), she ends up driving Seth and three-year-old Ella (played by real-life twins Charlotte and Madeline Carel) around town, first in search of a rehab clinic that will take Seth in between errand runs for balloons and cake… and then for a fix that might save his life, at least for tonight, while the party goes on without her and the three-year-old in the backseat who is watching her father crumble beneath withdrawal.

It’s a simple and sparse setup, presented in nigh real-time over a feature length that barely clears the 70-minute mark. However, what it has, and what it ultimately must entirely rely on, is two strong turns by its central performers. Abbi Jacobson particularly proves to be something of a revelation as Katie, a tightly wound and put-upon sister and daughter. With a personality that spends all day planning the best outfit to go with the best pigs in a blanket—yet still earns a decided lack of approval from her mother—she is the antithesis of her brother, who while off of smack is a bitter, selfish rule-breaker. And when on it, he is all of those things, but also giddy, charming, and sweetly devoted to his sister and child, if only because they’re the only two who haven’t given up on him.

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Nevertheless, this film is about the crossroads Katie finds herself at to do just that. By the end of the film, which includes her buying his “medicine” in the seediest part of town and trying to get him a single needle from a pharmacy, she will need to reach a decision that is obvious. This conflict is underscored by an on-the-nose visual metaphor that is reprised throughout the movie: She is in a car with Seth as water fills in, threatening to swallow her just as whole as it has her brother.

It’s an evocative image, but its presentation, like the film it appears in, is strikingly broad and overdone for such a short feature. It’s also otherwise buttressed by achingly sentimental tropes that are too often leaned upon in talky dramas with the word “addict” always implicitly on its lips.  From the repetitive beat of the daughter crying in the backseat with the most forward of smash-cuts to the judging eyes Katie encounters across the counter by a pharmacist—and the obligatory bonding moment of her and Seth ruining that woman’s night. It’s all so familiar it errs close to being a cliché in experimentation.

It’s a brief portrait with a devastating subject, but it feels unfinished, relying too often on well-worn techniques to complete an intimate study that may have simply needed a second pass. Despite this, Jacobson gives a nervy and embittered turn that will shock her Broad City fans, which in turn indicates a long career after that sketch series. Dave Franco also follows up his amiable work in The Disaster Artist with a much more layered performance as a man who is entirely winsome in his ability to draw sympathy and simple laughs. Which is to say, he is terrific at channeling a user who loves his family, but not enough to open the door for them as the water fills ever closer to his pupils.

As such, it is one of Netflix’s more affecting movies we’ve seen in the last few months, even if that effect includes the desire for it to build to something more substantial.

6 Balloons premieres on Netflix on April 6.

2.5 out of 5

David Crow | @DCrowsNest

David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…

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6 Balloons Review

[yasr_overall_rating size=”medium”] Written and directed by Marja-Lewis Ryan, 6 Balloons tells a tight tale of a relapsed heroin addict (Dave Franco) and his enabling sister (Abbi Jacobson). The film debuted at SXSW and streamed on Netflix from April 6.

Whittled down to the barest, palest bones of a story, the 74-minute 6 Balloons is a brilliant and bruising film. Bereft of everything but the essentials, and two shockingly exact against-type leading performances, writer-director Marja-Lewis Ryan has crafted a story that captures better than perhaps any other how it feels to circle the gurgling drain of insatiable self-destructive appetites.

Katy (Jacobson) is preparing a surprise party for her boyfriend when she notices that her brother, Seth (Franco), and his four-year-old daughter, Ella (played alternately by twins Charlotte and Madeleine Carel), haven’t arrived. We meet her in the midst of last-minute preparations, but the look of worry on her face when she can’t reach Seth on his phone is different; it’s the knowing, wearied expression of an enabler.

You can always tell. I used drugs for several years and was dependent on them for several months, so I’ve seen it on the faces of my friends and family. The one you see reflected back at yourself is different; sunken, alien, like your skin is draped on someone else’s skeleton. That’s the face Seth wears, when Katy arrives at his apartment on the pretext of running out to pick up a birthday cake. Franco lost 20 pounds for the role, and evidently studied the effects of withdrawal when an addict’s body starts rebelling against them. Junkies always look shrunken; they give so much of themselves to the junk.

Seth hasn’t been picking up his mail, which is something that, according to Katy, “happened last time.” Sometimes, when you hear sharply-written and well-acted dialogue, you realise how rarely characters in films talk and behave like real people. In 6 Balloons , as Katy insists that Seth has relapsed and Seth insists that he hasn’t, what you feel is familiarity. It’s the kind of circular argument that makes everyone dizzy, but that you have time and again with your kids or your siblings or your spouse or your friends.

Hurt people, they hurt people. Addicts are no different. As much as anything, 6 Balloons is about self-destructive behaviour never quite being confined to the self. When Katy agrees to take Seth back to rehab, what she’s really agreeing to is becoming, however temporarily, an addict herself. Together in the car – with Ella in the backseat – they navigate the contemporary landscape of substance abuse, from clinics that won’t accept Seth’s insurance to drug store bathrooms and back again to that increasingly-tiny passenger seat.

Including a toddler in almost every scene struck me as a risky tactic, but in 6 Balloons it’s frighteningly honest and never manipulative. Another gamble is the self-help audio tape that Katy plays in her car; it’s analogies about sinking boats playing over their journey like chapter breaks in a hellish travelogue seemed too heavy-handed to be effective, but it builds to a powerful payoff in the film’s final act.

Jacobson and Franco, both known primarily for comedic roles, fully commit themselves to shading Katy and Seth’s shared history, mostly through body language and expression. The script is pared down to the essentials, so the audience is left to infer details from small nuances in the acting, such as when Katy only offers a reserved smile to Seth’s over-the-top cheeriness – from experience, she knows it’s fake, or at least temporary. Seth aims his few remaining charms at his sister because, weak and self-indulgent as he is, he recognises that his parents (Jane Kaczmarski and Tim Matheson) are long-since immune to them.

It seems fitting that Katy is planning a surprise party in 6 Balloons , because a surprise is exactly what the film is. But a party? Far from it. It’s a no-nonsense, honest and scary drama about two people struggling with crippling addiction; one who abuses substances, and another who abuses forgiveness. It’s easy to vilify both, but 6 Balloons encourages you to think not just about the junkie trying to get clean, but the well-meaning people near them who end up just as sullied by the ordeal. The audience is Ella in the backseat, pulled along by the nightmare, and wondering where it might end.

Article by Jonathon Wilson

Jonathon is one of the co-founders of Ready Steady Cut and has been an instrumental part of the team since its inception in 2017. Jonathon has remained involved in all aspects of the site’s operation, mainly dedicated to its content output, remaining one of its primary Entertainment writers while also functioning as our dedicated Commissioning Editor, publishing over 6,500 articles.

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'6 Balloons' Is A Brilliantly Nuanced Depiction Of Addiction

Your must watch this week

In the opening scenes of 6 Balloons we see the optimistic preparations for a suburban birthday party getting underway. Cool-boxes are filled with beer, green and purple pastel balloons are ferried from the supermarket and a woman hangs bunting on a stool that we can see is teetering precariously beneath her.

It's an obvious but potent metaphor for what is about to be pulled from beneath her feet and the instability lurking under this middle-class family.

Set over the course of one evening, Netflix original 6 Balloons starts when Katie's (Abbi Jacobson of Broad City ) brother Seth (Dave Franco) fails to turn up to a family party. After going in search of him she finds piles of unopened mail and her brother, relapsed into heroin addiction. They spend the night driving across Los Angeles in search of a detox centre with his two-year-old daughter in the back of the car.

It's an impressive change of pace for two actors primarily known for significantly lighter material, but despite how quickly we leave the friendly family house for bleaker settings, their comedic talents still come through in the jibes between siblings.

Director Marja-Lewis Ryan wrote the story after her friend and the film's producer Samantha Housman experienced a similar evening with her brother. "The opioid crisis has hit families that never thought anything like this could ever happen to them and Dave has this boy-next-door likeability that endears you to him despite the character’s choices," Ryan said on the decision to cast Franco. "That was a really important quality because I wanted the audience to understand why Katie was helping him and enabling him, and Seth’s charm made that easier to buy."

Franco and Jacobsen's on-screen relationship is utterly convincing not only in the forgiveness and sympathy we afford siblings but in showing how quickly we revert to the squabbling and resentments of childhood. Sombre discussions and arguments quickly melt into childish laughter and Seth jeering at Katie: "I'm your brother and you love me so much".

This willingness to show the light and dark of addiction and offer a nuanced depiction of the disease is present throughout the film. We see continual contrasts between the world Franco has left and one he inhabits now. His sweaty garbling withdrawals in the car interspersed with partygoers shouting 'SURPRISE!', or a side-by-side aerial view of Katie changing his daughter's nappy and Seth shooting up in a toilet stall.

Instead of highlighting the distance between these worlds, it blends them showing that being an addict is not a singular identity, not confined to Skid Row but a customer in a cupcake shop too. Seth is a heroin user but also a funny brother and a loving father, and seeing him through the eyes of the people he loves humanises his addiction.

Not that 6 Balloons shies away from the brutal reality of drug addiction, showing how worry gnaws away at each family member and isolates Katie after she enables her brother. In one scene she confronts Seth and can't even bring herself to ask the impossible question of whether he's using. Instead she offers meekly, "you stopped opening your mail last time".

The moments that take the viewpoint of Seth's daughter are particularly harrowing, the wide eyes of Katie as she changes her nappy and the shifting feet of her father under a bathroom stall as he shoots up. There is a child-like intuition of knowing something is going on even without fully understanding what.

As Katie asks Seth at one point on their drive, "Did something happen to you to make you like this?" When he says no, she replies in disbelief: "We came from the same place." Something, the 6 Balloons reminds us, we can all say to some extent when considering people in the throes of addiction.

'6 Balloons' is available to stream on Netflix now

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Netflix’s stunning ‘6 Balloons’ tells a true story of addiction

Abbi jacobson and dave franco go dramatic in this sxsw standout..

Audra Schroeder

Posted on Mar 13, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 9:53 pm CDT

In Marja-Lewis Ryan’s 6 Balloons ,  one long night tests the limits of compassion.

6 Balloons , which debuted at SXSW on Monday, tells the story of Katie ( Broad City ’s Abbi Jacobson) a woman who’s trying to plan a surprise birthday party for her boyfriend. But as the day goes on she collides with her brother Seth (Dave Franco), a heroin addict who’s using again. He’s taking care of his 2-year-old daughter Ella and going through withdrawal in front of her.

Though a backstory is never fleshed out, Katie knows Seth has relapsed. Over the course of one night, she has to make a series of decisions about how to handle Seth, how to protect his daughter, and how to keep some sort of control and autonomy in her life. The way we enable people we love is writ large, but for women especially, we’re often urged to step up and take care of everyone. 

There are no flashbacks — Ryan knew she could make a “shared history” on-screen without that. She told the Daily Dot she was more interested in the co-dependent partner, and Jacobson gives a solid performance as a woman who appears to have her life under control but might be spiraling. Franco, who lost 20 pounds for the role, plays Seth subtly, using a look or gesture to signal that something is wrong. The scenes in Katie’s car, as she drives her brother and niece around Los Angeles in search of a detox center, are soundtracked by what appear to be self-help tapes, but Ryan says she wrote the dialogue based on an Al Anon poem. It serves as Katie’s inner dialogue, reflecting her self-doubt. In one striking act of magical realism, Katie’s car fills with water as she struggles with the weight of Seth’s addiction.

“The loneliness inside those dark moments is almost more crippling… not being able to talk about the things; not knowing where to talk,” Ryan says. “If this isn’t your story, then maybe you can gain a little empathy for people who are experiencing this. And if it is your story, hopefully, you can feel a little less lonely.”

6 Balloons is very much about middle-class addiction, based on a similar night Ryan’s best friend (and the film’s co-producer) Samantha Housman experienced: Her brother, a lawyer, was addicted to heroin. After Housman told her the story, and the opioid epidemic continued to get worse, Ryan asked if she could tell the story of that night. (She’s also writing the script for the gender-swapped Splash remake, starring 6 Balloons co-producer Channing Tatum.) 

Ryan always had Jacobson in mind for the role: “I love watching comedians make turns. I love Steve Carell as a dramatic actor, I love Will Ferrell as a dramatic actor. And Kristen Wiig was the one woman I kept coming back to. But Abbi feels more like Steve Carell to me. She’s got a fire in her. …Even though she’s making these choices, I still feel taken care of by her. She feels like a normal person.”

Jane Kaczmarek stars as Seth and Katie’s mom, and Tim Matheson plays their dad, but 6 Balloons mostly focuses on the connection between siblings and the push and pull of addiction. Shots of Seth’s daughter as they drive around, as he sweats and contorts in the front seat, reflect a certain helplessness. In one heartbreaking scene where Katie gives in and takes Seth to get heroin, the GPS repeatedly tells them to “turn around” and Ella mimics the voice, but it sounds more like pleading. The daughter in the film was actually played by twins, and Ryan assures they never saw Franco shoot up in the pivotal bathroom scene. In fact, the actor in that scene kept asking him to come out so they could play.

Ryan says there were moments when Jacobson and Franco improvised and made each other laugh in the scene, adding to the genuine feel of a sibling relationship. By the end of the film, we’re not given any resolution, but the loneliness of addiction is driven home.

6 Balloons debuts April 6 on Netflix.

Audra Schroeder is the Daily Dot’s senior entertainment writer, and she focuses on streaming, comedy, and music. Her work has previously appeared in the Austin Chronicle, the Dallas Observer, NPR, ESPN, Bitch, and the Village Voice. She is based in Austin, Texas.

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6 Balloons (2018)

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Hazem Fahmy is a poet and critic from Cairo. He…

With the exception of HBO, no network or streaming giant has managed to rival Netflix’s consistency in rolling out exceptional series across spectrums of genre and tone. For some odd reason, that same model doesn’t seem have worked as well for their narrative films. Despite a fiery 2017 slate that included such critical darlings as I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore , The Meyerowitz Stories , Mudbound and Okja , the phrase “Netflix Movie” continues to be used as a pejorative. Recent duds like Bright , The Cloverfield Paradox , and Mute have not helped.

On the more indie side of things, a “Netflix Movie” is often thought of as an aesthetically pleasing, but ultimately superficial small-budget film that lacks any sufficient dramatic payoff. Given the lower risks inherent to “distributing” a film on Netflix, there’s much more room for risk, but that doesn’t seem to translate to bolder filmmaking as often as it should. Thankfully, Marja-Lewis Ryan ’s 6 Balloons seems to be an exception.

Odyssey of Awful

Taking place over the course of one horrifying night, the film follows Abbi Jacobson ’s Katie, a woman who is forced by circumstance to drive her heroin-addicted brother Seth, played by  Dave Franco , around Los Angeles in search of a detox center that will have him. To make matters worse, his two year-old tags along.

In the midst of the ongoing opioid crisis, 6 Balloons strikes a careful balance between timeliness and universality. One cannot help but think of the national discourse when watching Katie being turned away again, and again, and again. Though critical of the ways women are expected to mother the men around them, the film also extends an empathetic hand to Seth, a young man whose only obstacle to help is a broken healthcare system.

At first, it may seem hard to imagine two comic actors like Jacobson and Franco inhabit such a heavy story. But like all great comedians who turn to drama, neither of them throw away their signature styles, rather sharply redirect them to fit these new characters’ needs. This film is anything but a comedy, but it is funny. There’s a seamless familial chemistry between Katie and Seth; one feels the weight of their history, with all its turbulence and all its joy, in every moment. Some of Jacobson ’s funniest moments on Broad City involve timely uses of her trademark deadpan. As a character faced with incessant cruel absurdity, Katie makes great use of that kind of reaction. Similarly. Franco ’s boyish charm, the heart and soul of his performances like in 21 Jump Street , fit Seth’s manipulative, but genuinely desperate demeanor.

Despite a somewhat slow start, Ryan paces the film expertly, throwing us in the midst of the night’s tension, humor and dread. Her camera roams and shakes as the conversations peak and drop. Ryan is acutely aware of the kind of unjust emotional, and even physical, labor that is being demanded of Katie throughout the film. Before Seth showed up to her house, she was planning a birthday party for her boyfriend. By the end, she cannot even attend the very party she has thrown because she still needs to take care of her brother. It’s a grueling experience watching her, especially when she needs to be a mother to both her brother and his own daughter, a responsibility he seems incapable of doing.

Filming an Epidemic

But for all of its heaviness, 6 Balloons challenges what we’ve come to expect of dramas about drugs. There’s neither a climactic overdose nor a neat resolution. In an oddly effective way, the film isn’t really interested in what happens to Seth once the credits roll. This is largely due to Ryan ’s focus on Katie. It isn’t so much a portrait of addiction as it is a portrait of what happens to the family and loved ones of those who have been claimed by addiction. There are no graphic close-ups of needles penetrating skin or cold turkey vomiting. Instead, we linger on Katie’s heartbroken face as her brother asks her to find and buy heroin for her, or when he casually shrugs off her warnings: “Only stupid people O.D.” The intimacy is devastating.

But Ryan ’s boldest choice lies in the relative short length of the film. Running at a brisk 74 minutes, 6 Balloons feels concise and poignant, like it’s said all it has to say, thank you very much. I can’t help but feel that other directors would’ve felt an immense pressure, perhaps from a producer, to cram more into a story that is really only concerned with one night. The ending feels abrupt in the most effective way, refusing to give an easy out for either its characters or audience. It’s a risky choice, no doubt, but it works because it serves Ryan ’s overarching tone.

6 Balloons : Conclusion

Far from the average Netflix indie, 6 Balloons is a thrilling turn for its co-stars and a promising sophomore picture for its director. It’s always refreshing to see a take on a social epidemic that doesn’t wallow in clichés of suffering, but rather examines the humanity underneath it all, and Ryan does just that. Though I left the film satisfied, I’m already hungering for these three’s next projects. Let’s hope they work together again.

In your book, which films portray addiction most poignantly? 

6 Balloons screened several times during the SXSW Conferences and Festival 2018.   It will be released worldwide on Netflix April 6.

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Hazem Fahmy is a poet and critic from Cairo. He is an Honors graduate of Wesleyan University’s College of Letters where he studied literature, philosophy, history and film. His work has appeared, or is forthcoming in Apogee, HEArt, Mizna, and The Offing. In his spare time, Hazem writes about the Middle East and tries to come up with creative ways to mock Classicism. He makes videos occasionally.

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Movie Review: “6 Balloons”

Shehan Karunaratne | Posted on January 20, 2020 |

Last Updated on December 11, 2020

Based on the way this movie opens, you wouldn’t expect to be watching a movie about heroin addiction , but what you get is something much different. As the story begins to unfold, you realize that Katie (Abbi Jacobson), is a witty control freak who leads a successful, middle-class life, but she is also plagued by something very dark.

The film opens with Katie running errands and prepping for her boyfriend’s surprise birthday party. However, she soon realizes that her brother Seth (Dave Franco) has relapsed on heroin again. You can see the color drain from her face as she peers through her brother’s apartment window and spots a stack of unopened mail. He stopped opening it a while ago and his voicemail was full…just like last time this happened.

Katie quickly abandons her own party plans to drive across Los Angeles with her brother in tow to find a detox center that accepts his insurance. Meanwhile, Seth is plagued by the intense horrors of opioid withdrawal—with his two-year-old daughter in the backseat.

Throughout the movie, Katie is faced with a reoccurring dilemma: try to help her brother or let him drown in his addiction. The film is periodically narrated by a self-help audio-book that brings her struggle to life with vivid imagery of a small boat capsizing at sea. Her internal struggle is intense and ultimately brings her to a breaking point at which she must decide how she wants to respond to her brother’s addiction while also dealing with the ups and downs in her own life.

“6 Balloons,” in its entirety, takes place over the course of one single night as Katie and her brother battle difficult, challenging, and even dangerous situations. Although the emotionally-intense scenes are sometimes difficult to watch, they are punctuated by dark humor and the quirks of a closely bonded sibling relationship that has already endured so much.

While this movie very accurately depicts the ups and downs of life with an addicted loved one, it also does a great job of exposing the blurry boundaries that separate helping from enabling .

Before you watch this movie, it’s important to know that “6 Balloons” is a low-budget film that is not necessarily awe-inspiring or full of dramatic flair. Instead, it dives right into an extremely complex issue and attempts to tackle it in a very real and honest way. With authentic and accurate displays of life as a heroin addict and a codependent loved one, you’ll likely be uncomfortable watching it—which is the point.

Overall, “6 Balloons” is an excellent portrayal of a codependent relationship and the difficulties of loving someone who is addicted to heroin. Katie’s struggle to let go of her brother is real, raw and relatable. While this movie does contain scenes that could be a trigger for someone in recovery, it may be helpful for those who are struggling to accept the realities of a close friend’s or family member’s substance use disorder.

“6 Balloons” is available to watch on Netflix with a subscription.