Appropriate Behavior (2015)

There's a certain type of movie that Sundance always selects: quirky comedies about lovable oddballs who are in the middle of a crisis and want everyone to know about it. This is Appropriate Behavior. I will say in its favour that there isn't enough bisexual representation in cinema nor is there enough about American- Iranians. This has both, but at the same time writer director Desiree Akhavan doesn't want to examine either aspect in depth. This is both refreshing because these aspects of lead character Shirin's identity are assured aspects of who she is and aren't part of her crisis, and frustrating because aside from these elements there is nothing that makes this movie stand out in any way from the quirky indie comedies that come out every year from Sundance. Behavior is about Shirin (played by Akhavan). Recently having broken up with the live-in girlfriend her conservative Persian parents thought was her "roommate" the film plays in pieces as we watch Akhavan try to put her life back together without the woman who defined so much of it. As a bonus we are also treated to flashbacks of the rise and fall of her relationship with her ex. It is... not very exciting. The film is written with so many pithy one liners you can tell it was written to death. This makes for great screencaps and dialogue you can use as gif sets but as an overarching script with characterization not so much. The narrative is fairly elegantly sliced and diced so that you get just the right amount of mix of past and present but at the same time... Just who cares? This feels directly aimed at a group of lost 20 somethings stumbling their way through life, but as a lost 20 something myself I'm sick of seeing these kind of movies (always set in NYC!) and the individual scenes don't really do anything for me. There are still some aspects that make this movie watchable: a threesome that goes wrong (I'm always partial to sex scenes that are good and by good I mean manage to maintain the flow of the story. So many movies just have all plot and emotion stop to get a few thrusts in. Akhavan understands how to continue to build the narrative using the sex scene). The ending of the film is very cathartic and pitch perfect as well. How Akhavan manages to nail some of the most difficult aspects of filmmaking while flubbing the middle is beyond me. It gives me hope however that she'll continue to improve.

A new film-making star has been born! This is not an indie movie, this is not an LGBT movie, this is simply great! Ms. Akhavan is so talented on so many levels. This stuff is much better than "Girls" and other similar indie pretentious accounts of white middle-class daughters whose biggest problem in life is that their boyfriends are more handsome than themselves, which makes these girls bloody insecure, and than they comfort themselves with some trashy losers from the street.I love this movie, because it is totally post-indie and post-everything production. Shirin is seemingly a girl who has everything, looks and brain, and even pleasant and pretty nice parents, but who still has real, depressing problem. Her problem is that, due to her age, education and ways of socialisation she is caught up between rapid identity liberalisation, feminism, sexual freedom, on the one hand, and still remains of firm traditional identity constrains, that come from her family background, on the other hand. This is so much a story of current second generation immigrants everywhere in USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Scandinavia, etc.Her family is so typical for North American immigrants - they seem to be worldly people, but actually they still know only their original ways and hold on them, as the only source of security. Being familiar to that community, I am so proud someone has finally started telling this story, in relation to NY and these, youngest generation.The second layer of the story, the tension between lesbianism, and bisexuality, is also done very interestingly. It also deconstructs in very subtle way the fashionable urban myth of "bisexuality", as something that is cool for every woman, and belief that, after being in love with a woman, bisexual girls can always successfully replace her with a hot guy, or threesome. Shirin's character so obviously demonstrates that "bisexuality" does not help when a woman loses another woman whom she loves. I actually liked sex scenes a lot in this movie, they were so effective and graphic. I simply can't believe the same person who acted in them, also directed them.I also like the interesting anatomy of her relationship with Maxin, who is seemingly a dorky, unattractive and insecure girl, but actually much stronger than she looks like, and, a real, genuine love of Shirin. Striking contrast between their looks and styles is a great accent in the movie: it underlines the strength of love.And finally, the humor in the movie does not undermine the seriousness of the issue. Conflict with a loving family, which denies the crucial issues of their children, is one of the most painful features of current adulthood, no matter how emancipated and self-focused those people in question are.There are scenes that could have been improved, and we could have seen more of a Shirin's non-Persian friends, who definitely must have influenced her in life. Also, some situations with family could have been more elaborated. Still, this is incomparably better than "Girls", so I hope that this talented young woman will get at least as much chance in this business as a person who wrote "Girls" has got, and I am sure, the screen result will be much more interesting. Kudos to Ms. Akhavan!

A break up movie with difference, told with on point narrative form and a blazing Independent spirt, this movie is about the journey to post-break up redemption.With current day exploits as Shirin deals with the madness of the relationship break up grieving process, the audience is drawn in to cleverly juxtaposed vignettes that adeptly portray and dissect the reality of the relationship itself from start to finish.At the same time, Shirin finds a new job that offers the opportunity for some personal growth as she reflects on the behaviour of 5-year-olds and has to play the grown up to them, learning there is always a time for play as well as a time for maturity. She eventually learns to face up to coming out to her family and the closure of the relationship.Some beautiful and moving moments, perfectly flawed characters, laugh out loud awkwardness, as well as a gentle edgy tone that together create a totally appropriate feature debut for Akhavan.

"Appropriate Behavior" is written and directed by Desiree Akhavan, a bisexual Iranian-American woman, who stars as Shirin, a Brooklyn native, attempting to rebuild her life after breaking up with her girlfriend Maxine. One is struck by the delightful irreverence of Ms. Akhavan, who has few guilt feelings in acting upon her sexual desires. The plot features encounters with men, women and a menage a trois with a latex- loving couple.In addition to her sexual life, Akhavan informs us of Shirin's family life, which includes verbal tussles with her more "successful" physician brother over revealing her bisexual predilections to her traditional Iranian-born parents. Shirin also takes a job teaching pre-kindergarten students how to use a video camera and create short films.Diego Costa writing in "Slant Magazine," notes that Shirin doesn't really fit into the Iranian-American community she was born into or the lesbian sub-culture she aspires to be part of: "Iranian-Americans are depicted as only able to communicate by gossiping and "reading," whereas cosmopolitan queerness is presented as a bubble of self-important and pseudo-intellectual regurgitation. The ethnic and sexual communities she's supposed to belong to appear to suffocate Shirin, as their original role of sheltering give way to an orthodoxy that erases the singularity of human subjects. Thankfully, for the audience and for herself, Shirin is able to transform this lack of harmony not into bitterness, but into an opportunity to articulate her own awkwardness."Stephanie Merry in the "Washington" Post believes that it's Akhavan's sense of self-deprecating humor that makes her writing stand out: "Shirin is relentlessly self-effacing. When someone tells her she could be a model, she says, "Yeah, a before model for Accutane." But Akhavan has great comic timing and a wonderful screen presence that, much like Dunham's, is not at all self-conscious. In that same vein, Akhavan doesn't shy from stripping down or putting herself into scenarios, sexual and otherwise, that will make some viewers squirm."For Sheila O'Malley at "RogerEbert.com," when Shirin remarks, "Can you tell I'm dead inside just by looking at me?", that's an example of the "deadpan" tone throughout the film. O'Malley insists that, "The appeal of the relationship with Maxine is never really evident in the film, and that is one of the flaws of the deadpan approach." She describes the relationship with Maxine (told through flashbacks) as "all-consuming, and Shirin has sentimentalized it in memory, telling a friend, "We were an It Couple." Maxine is self-righteous and judgmental, cloaked in identity politics. On their first meeting, Shirin, drunk, wearing a tiara at a New Year's Eve party, looks at Maxine's rather severe outfit and says, "I love dykes." Maxine tells her how offensive that word is. Shirin is baffled. She meant it as a compliment." O'Malley likes Akhavan's "awkwardness" and "defense mechanisms." O'Malley also echoes the theme of Shirin having difficulty fitting in: "Maxine thinks Shirin is a tourist in the gay world. But Shirin is a tourist everywhere: that's the problem."Andrew O'Hehir in "Slant Magazine" sees that Shirin's refusal to come out of the closet is by no means a selfish act: "In 21st-century Brooklyn-political terms, we're supposed to see Shirin's refusal to come out as an act of cowardice. It's that too, but Akhavan also makes us feel that Shirin's willingness to allow her parents their circumlocutions and obfuscations – they know without knowing, accept without discussion, tell themselves lies they know to be lies – is in its own peculiar way an act of generosity. If this is a familiar kind of film with a familiar setting and a familiar resolution, that intense delicacy makes it clear that its creator is an unusual talent."Katie Walsh in "The Playlist" makes a good case that Akhavan mainly is promoting a "be yourself" (with all one's attendant flaws) philosophy: "This is expertly demonstrated in the silly and hilarious movie that Shirin makes with her band of five-year-old boys, as embracing exactly what they want to do allows her to see the merit in embracing exactly what she wants on her own terms. What we understand from this, even in all of its scatological glory, is the cathartic power of filmmaking in representing and understanding one's own identity."Eric Kohn in "Indieworld" can't help but argue in substance that "Appropriate Behavior" is optimistic to the core: "Despite its protagonist's rapid-fire cynicism, the movie is never consumed by pessimism. As it stretches back to Shirin's initial courtship with Maxine, Akhavan smartly reinforces the nature of their bond: The older, confident Maxine escapes the anxieties of growing older through Shirin's blind idealism, while Shirin identifies Maxine's ire as a form of fashionable snark that the younger woman admires. During their initial flirtation, Shirin gushes, "I hate so many things, too!" The exchange initially reads as heartwarming but in retrospect also points to their eventual discord."Despite all the accolades, "Appropriate Behavior" does have a few shortcomings, particularly in its underdeveloped portrait of the protagonist's parents. In addition, David Rooney, writing in "The Hollywood Reporter" found the ending to be abrupt: "While her pit stops frequently suggest a bi-now/gay-later woman destined to shed that denial, the story's soft resolution merely settles for a vaguely consolatory "she'll-be-fine" shot as a cue to the standard closing blast of whimsical indie rock."Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" perhaps sums it up best: "for all its disorganization and lack of an ending or even a sense of direction, "Appropriate Behavior" is alive. The screenplay is packed with smart remarks, clever and unpredictable turns of phrase that knock you off balance. Little set pieces in which Shirin goes shopping for sexy lingerie and takes part in a gay-rights discussion group give you the flavor of a neighborhood in which everyone has an edge. A stoned, laid-back attitude is not the same thing as relaxation."