Coming-of-age story 'Suncoast' debuts at Sundance Film Festival

PARK CITY, UTAH -- "Suncoast" is a unique coming-of-age story about an awkward high school girl named Doris, played by Nico Parker, who finds some unlikely friendships while navigating her brother's health struggles.

Those new friendships include a clique of popular girls and an eccentric activist played by Woody Harrelson.

Three-time Oscar nominee Laura Linney was among the stars on the red carpet at Sundance. She plays Doris' preoccupied mother.

"She is caring for her terminally ill son, and she has teenage daughter to take care of at the same time, and she's dealing with the stresses and complexities of that situation and grief," Linney said.

The film, from Searchlight Pictures, is the debut for director Laura Chinn, who wrote the script based on her own teenage experience.

"It was definitely a very unique situation that I've always tried to figure out how to tell a story about it, and so it took me a while to get the story right, the script right and get it there. I'm immensely proud of it," she said.

Many of the film's young supporting cast members made the trip to Sundance, including one of the Internet's top influencers, Ariel Martin AKA "Baby Ariel," who has 36 million followers on TikTok.

"I'm just so grateful to be a part of something that has such meaning and is telling such an important story, that I hope will spark really powerful conversation," Martin said.

"Suncoast" will open in select theaters Feb. 2, and you can stream it on Hulu starting on Feb. 9.

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