| B+ | Sundance 2025 |
The tagline for this movie is, “A woman swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair.” So you already know this is going to be weird, though you will probably never guess how avant-garde it is. This movie is one quarter parable, three quarters performance piece (by all the actors).
But this director had a vision, which was well executed. And a lot of commentary on humans’ flaws and flawed interactions—probably even more than I picked up on. So it comes across as “intellectual” weird, not “stupid” weird. And the associated picture I chose gives you a little sense of the movie’s visual style.
If you check out the cast list, you’ll see a lot of names you recognize. (And nice to see Udo Kier once again.)
Just as we got to the ending, I thought I realized (part of) where this was going, actually started hoping for it. And that’s what happened, and I respected the director all the more for it.
I just looked up her other films and see I was less enthused about her Give Me Pity! three years ago. I enjoyed this movie much more. Can’t say why, this one just fit in my brain better.
While watching, I thought that the lead (Juliette Lewis) must have said “yes” to this movie because of the odd acting challenge it would be. At the Q&A afterwards, she admitted that she loved the first part of the script so much she accepted the role, so she did not fully know what she was getting herself into until she finished reading it later!
