Movie info via Sundance:
Terry Goon is keeping strict quarantine in his ex-husband’s Brooklyn brownstone while caring for his nephew — a 19-year-old model from Morocco named Bahlul — bedridden in a full leg cast after an electric scooter accident. Unfortunately for Terry, everyone in his life wants to meet the model.
Stress Positions is as much a finely tuned time capsule of the frantic fear and formative power of the pandemic as it is a road map out of dark places guided by a profound humanity. A careful balance between a consistent, razor-sharp humor and the development of a distinctive cinematic tone creates a particular mood and energy that is not easily forgotten.
Returning to the Sundance Film Festival after her 2021 appearance as writer-director and star of the Episodic My Trip to Spain, Theda Hammel once again proves herself to be a prolific powerhouse with her directorial debut. Hammel’s clever script, energetic performance, confident directorial style, and beautifully crafted score come together in an exciting whirl of charisma and social commentary. John Early (at Sundance with My Trip to Spain in 2021 and Save Yourselves! in 2020) delivers a hilariously tense performance among a talented young cast. Stress Positions at once ratchets up raw nerves and also helps us release them
Review:
Set within a few Covid summer weeks of 2020 Theda Hamnel’s Stress Positions follows Terry Goon (John Early) as he blunders through anxiety and stress.
Almost divorced from his husband (he still has to sign the papers) and unemployed, Terry is still living in his exes rundown Brownstone and experiencing Covid phobia. Terry is caring for 19-year-old nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash), a half-Moroccan model with his own existential crisis.
Nearby, his friend, Karla (director Hammel) and her girlfriend Vanessa (Amy Zimmer) complicate Terry’s life with their meddling. Further vexing Terry, is his eccentric upstairs neighbor Coco (Rebecca F. Wright) a COVID denier who’s a bad influence on Bahlul. On the sidelines, an attractive delivery guy (Faheem Ali) complicates Terry and Karla’s already fraying friendship.
Hammel uses multiple voiceovers to fill in some of the historical subtext, relate assorted characters views and feeling, give their analysis of what these emotional entanglement mean to them. It’s all collides together in an anxiety prone mishmash that’s not intended to be easily sorted out by the viewer. It sort of functions as a metaphor to reflect the anxiety in Terry’s mind.
This device is both a blessing and a curse. It becomes a crutch to tell feelings rather than show them. It would have been better for Hammel to slow the farce action down with thoughtful interludes and pauses that give the audience a chance to gather facts and assess them. Or made it faster, more farcical but linear in plot. The audience will get a sense of the insanity and anxiety but still have a rational branch to hold on to. Sure, the voiceovers are poetic and insightful, but they’re also redundant. After a while, I just tuned them out. I’m sure the audience did too.
Adding to the showing of Terry’s anxieties are the blurred down shots with the camera slightly off center- a haunting, poignant way to show fretful memories. Also, the many tight closeups which amplify the actor’s tense delivery and show their complicated feelings toward one another. The frenetic rhythm further ramps things up.
Still, Hammel knows how to get the best out of her actors performance wise. She has taken annoying, ignorant people- the ones that think they are the smartest person in the room- and has made them sympathetic even while satirizing their behaviors. It’s just her technique that over-stresses Stress Positions.
Stress Positions gets a 3/5 or a B.
It’s streaming as part of Sundance 2024 . The virtual part of the festival runs from January 25-28.
Credits:
- DIRECTOR(S) THEDA HAMMEL
- SCREENWRITERTHEDA HAMMEL
- PRODUCERBRAD BECKER-PARTONJOHN EARLYSTEPHANIE ROUSHALLIE JANE COMPTONGREG NOBILE
- DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHYARLENE MULLER
- PRODUCTION DESIGNERGORDON LANDENBERGER
- EDITORSERIN DEWITTTHEDA HAMMEL
- COSTUME DESIGNERNATASHA SIMCHOWITZ
- MUSIC BYTHEDA HAMMEL
- CASTING BYSALOME OGGENFUSSGERALDINE BARON
- STORY BYTHEDA HAMMELFAHEEM ALI
- PRINCIPAL CASTJOHN EARLYQAHER HARHASHTHEDA HAMMELAMY ZIMMERFAHEEM ALIJOHN ROBERTS
- YEAR2023
- CATEGORYFEATURE
- COUNTRYUNITED STATES
- LANGUAGEENGLISH
- RUN TIME95 MIN
- COMPANYNEON
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