In writer-director-star Joanna Arnow鈥檚 Ann (Arnow), a 30-something New Yorker, lies naked in bed with an older man, Allen (Scott Cohen), with whom she has a yearslong BDSM relationship. She tells him she's grateful he only cares about his own pleasure.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like I don鈥檛 even exist," she says.
Much is just out of reach in Arnow鈥檚 shrewdly perceptive and very funny new film. Love, certainly, is nowhere near Ann鈥檚 life despite a series of romantic encounters. Music is talked about 鈥� from Andrew Lloyd Webber showtunes to the team cheer from 鈥淎 League of Their Own鈥� 鈥� but seldom heard. In one scene during a tryst with a composer, Ann says her favorite soundtrack is 鈥淚n the Act of Wishing for Love,鈥� but she means 鈥淚n the Mood for Love.鈥�
Even Ann鈥檚 existential crisis doesn鈥檛 quite materialize in this unwaveringly sardonic portrait of millennial malaise. Her life plays out in a series of brief, crispy edited vignettes that jump between her drab work life and her extreme but equally drab sex life.
Obedience is pushed on her in both places, as are labels, most of which Ann quietly but not necessarily apathetically accepts. One partner (Parish Bradley) who instructs her to communicate in 鈥渁 series of oinks鈥� writes the lewd name he鈥檚 given her across her belly in marker. At work, an unseen HR gives her a new job title: 鈥淐linical Media E-learning Specialist.鈥� Which is worse is hard to say. After three years on the job, she鈥檚 given a one-year anniversary trophy.
How Ann feels about all of this isn鈥檛 always obvious, possibly even to her. Arnow portrays her much as she directs and edits the film, with a detached deadpan. Sometimes Ann pushes back. She tells her older lover that she鈥檚 not an Internet window he can open and close. But there鈥檚 also something in Ann that recoils against more sentimental encounters. Later in the film, she begins dating someone sweetly if naively romantic (Babak Tafti) who鈥檚 unfamiliar with the kind of bondage role-playing Ann is accustomed to. But his sweetness is more of a strike against him. Ann may be a victim of her modern, alienating environment, but she鈥檚 also a product of it.
Arnow, who also made the 2013 film 鈥淚 hate myself :)鈥� has often been compared to as a generation-representing voice, for her willingness to bear all on screen and for her proclivity for autobiography. (Ann鈥檚 parents in the film are played by Arnow鈥檚 real-life mother and father, Barbara Weiserbs and David Arnow.)
But Arnow鈥檚 sensibility is much dryer and more satirical. Whether Ann can free herself of her circumstance is one thing, but Arnow, as a keenly insightful filmmaker, proves again and again that she has. How else can you explain the trenchant absurdity of the poem-worthy dialogue that runs through the film? A sexual partner whose first line is: 鈥淭hank you for forgiving me for mansplaining about L.A.鈥� A boss who announces: 鈥淚f you鈥檙e not on Spotify, you鈥檙e behind the times.鈥� And Ann, who after debasing herself with her older lover, says, 鈥淭he candles were nice,鈥� only for him to reply: 鈥淭here was just one candle.鈥�
鈥淭he Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed,鈥� a Magnolia Pictures release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association but contains adult nudity and language. Running time: 87 minutes. Three stars out of four.
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
