Hulu's 'Suncoast' Is a Coming-Of-Age Film Unlike Any Other

By Sara Clements | Film | February 13, 2024 |

By Sara Clements | Film | February 13, 2024 |

In the early 2000s, the United States was rocked by one family’s legal battle. The case involved Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who was in a permanent vegetative state after suffering a heart attack at just 26 years old. For 15 years, one family’s dispute brought the right-to-die debate into focus. Terri’s husband, Michael, fought in court to disconnect his wife’s feeding tube while her parents fought to keep her alive. In 2005, Michael won his case, and thirteen days after her feeding tube was removed, Terri Schiavo died at the Suncoast Hospice in Florida at 41 years old.

As protestors and news crews lingered outside Suncoast day and night, Laura Chinn was inside, waiting for her brother’s inevitable death of brain cancer. While Chinn was coming of age when her brother’s life was ending, she was also watching the impacts of Schiavo’s case. As one family fought about whether to keep their loved one alive, Chinn didn’t have that choice. Navigating profound loss while just trying to be a regular teen is what is mirrored in her semi-autobiographical film, Suncoast. Now on Hulu, this deeply personal story is unlike any coming-of-age movie in recent years, focusing on one family’s struggle to cope with their grief amid controversy.

No teenager should have to miss prom to be at their brother’s bedside. Unfortunately for Doris (Nico Parker), she doesn’t have the choice to be just a regular teenager. When we first meet Doris, she’s pushing her brother Max (Cree Kawa) in his wheelchair. This has been her reality for much of her childhood; understandably, she’s tired of it. Doris’s growing disinterest in caring for her brother causes conflict between her and her mother. The relationship between Doris and her mother, Kristine (Laura Linney), is a complicated one. While Kristine seems unsympathetic to Doris’s juvenile, albeit warranted, complaints, Doris forgets that if it weren’t for her taking care of her brother, Kristine wouldn’t have been able to work to keep a roof over their heads. It’s difficult to be a single mom, but in this situation, it’s even worse. Kristine, so consumed by her son’s care, often forgets to care for Doris, making the teen quite lonely.

When it’s time to move her brother into a hospice facility, the titular Suncoast, Doris finds she has more freedom. With her mother living at the hospice 24/7, she takes this time to finally try to make some friends. Often looked at as the weird kid, the reserved Doris builds the courage to invite her classmates over for a party. Throwing parties at her house on the nights that Kristine is at the hospital allows Doris to come out of her shell and be a regular teenager for once. But ignoring her grief in this way results in her being even more lonely than before. No one can relate to her.

Enter Paul (Woody Harrelson), a stranger that Doris meets at a dinner. They quickly hit it off due to their mutual experiences with loss. Paul is a widow who, because of the sudden death of his wife, has joined the crowd outside Suncoast to protest for keeping Terri Schiavo alive. The pair represent both arguments. Having to watch and wait for her brother’s suffering to end, Doris is on the inside. Paul is on the outside, not knowing what life is like to watch someone slowly waste away. While their conversation does sometimes revolve around the touchy subject of the right-to-die debate, it’s never preachy. The film never wants you to pick one side over the other; it just wants to illustrate how complicated it all is, especially when grief is at play.

On the surface, Suncoast may seem incredibly bleak, but it never is. Moments, like the ones shared by Doris and Paul, help take her and the audience away from reality for a while. Their relationship is quite heartwarming as they form a father-daughter bond. Paul provides comfort in words of wisdom and dad jokes, while also helping Doris feel like a normal teen for once by teaching her to drive. It’s quite sweet to watch their relationship form, and while he helps Doris forget what’s waiting for her, he also reminds her that it’s okay that she’s different because she’s going through really powerful stuff.

The film’s cast delivers ample emotion in their moving performances as each struggles to cope with grief and accept the reality of their situation. There is no right way to grieve, and Chinn illustrates this through the characters and their journey. Linney is darkly funny as a mother whose daughter describes her as a “lunatic”. She does come off as controlling and pretty crazy at times, with Doris often having to excuse her behavior, but it’s difficult to watch that tough exterior eventually crumble. Doris crumbles eventually, too, with Parker embodying sadness and regret in a way that makes her feel so much older as a performer.

Watching this family try to keep themselves together while their world is falling apart, and as such a high profile case surrounds them, it’s rewarding to see how they come out of all this in the end. Suncoast is a coming-of-age film unlike any other.