In director Melanie Oates’ second feature, people in a bucolic coastal town turn quickly on their own when the status quo is inadvertently challenged.

Attending church, baking bread, and marrying high school sweethearts are the standard in a small fishing town in Newfoundland, and despite not having checked the last two of those boxes, Eliza (Michaela Kurimsky) is beloved by all those around her.

After a church service, she parts ways with her mom and grandmother and heads into the nearby woods, with a purpose that nobody in her life is aware of: taking self-portraits in a bikini and ski mask to post to her super-popular anonymous social media account, which is filled with many more suggestive photos of Eliza.

Nobody from the town knows about another secret of hers: that in private quarters, she has a relationship with Toni (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, TIFF ’22’s Stellar). An outsider to the town and an out lesbian, Toni is begrudgingly welcomed.

A questionable meet-up with a married man unravels all of Eliza’s secrets and forces her to re-examine her morals, her identity, and her place in the community, in a spectacular fashion. She can’t run away from the repercussions of her choices and, ultimately, is surprised by those who continue to stand with her.

Sweet Angel Baby is a beautiful and heartbreaking look inside small-town identity politics, masterfully deploying themes of conformity, queerness, and sexuality.

KELLY BOUTSALIS

Content advisory: themes of sexual violence; sexual content