Stress Positions
Summary
John Early and Theda Hammel’sStress Positionsmay be the first truly hysterical pandemic funniness . Many films and appearance centered on the pandemic have earnestly leaned into the disaster of the 2020 lockdowns , while others , like Netflix’sThe Bubble , were vacuous jabbing at a real - life sentence crisis . Either way , many of these shows get along too soon . It ’s ill-defined ifStress Positionshas arrived"too soon"but its propinquity to the pandemic does n’t make it any less hysteric , even if it ’s hollow in other areas .
Stress Positions is a comedy film directed by Theda Hammel and initially premier at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival . When Terry is forced into quarantine at his former husband ’s home , he is result like for his nephew , a popular nineteen - class - previous model , make for undesirable attention his way .
Early asterisk as Terry Goon , a New Yorker living in his soon - to - be - X - hubby Leo ’s tatterdemalion brownstone . binge in the basement is his nephew Bahlul ( Qaher Harhash ) , incapacitated by a hard break leg . A third resident , Coco ( Rebecca F. Wright ) survive on the third floor , but Terry sprays the air with RAID and Lysol every clock time she is forced to interact with his quarantine cod .
Stress Positions Captures The Chaotic Energy Of Quarantine
Told through voiceover , Karla , played by writer - theater director Hammel , Stress Positionsdepicts quarantine in a way that may almost be knotty to watch give how precise it is . From stepping outside and name noise at certain time during the day to the endless Grubhub delivery that are sprayed down , wiped down , and carefully place out on the counter before being eaten , it ’s an all - too - substantial depiction .
Early vacillates between high - strung neuroses and disassociation with easiness and , on top of that , his physical comedy is a sight to lay eyes on as he stumbles around the brownstone .
Terry is about as psychoneurotic as they follow and will remind you of that mortal in your life-time who resist to see you — even from a distance — for the majority of the year . regrettably , the the great unwashed in Terry ’s life do n’t care much about his boundaries . Karla , for one , is always barging in , bully to meet Terry ’s model nephew Bahlul and to get off from her girlfriend with whom she share an flat . other vacillates between high - strung neuroses and dissociation with rest and his forcible funniness is a sight to lay eyes on as he stumbles around the brownstone .
John Early in Stress Positions.
Stress Positions Reaches For Something More With Its Comedy
While Terry and Karla sail their own personal identity as post-2010s Brooklynites in a rapidly changing world , a group of equally interesting characters orbit around them . Bahlul is perhaps the most fascinating , as he has an existential crisis while living with Terry . He writes about his tike — also told in voiceover — slowly revealing things about Terry and his human relationship with Bahlul ’s mummy that make you see Early ’s character in a different , more truthful sparkle .
Through Bahlul , Karla , and other voiceovers , Stress Positions’story is told in an intentionally disorienting way , underscoring the feeling of listlessness we all matte in the early summer months of 2020 . It ’s an effectual formal exercise that go to some peachy funniness asthe motion-picture show skewer issues of gender , race , and gender from a in spades millennian perspective , one so jaded that it ca n’t see beyond its reflexion in the mirror . You may hate Terry , Karla , and those around them , but not as much as they hate themselves ( and they ’ll never have you forget that ) .
It ’s through characters like Coco , Bahlul , and even Ronald ( Faheem Ali , play a food messenger who gets wrapped in Karla and Terry ’s web ) , that existent freedom is find . Terry , Karla , and Leo will double the cycle we see them in , the cycles they themselves be intimate they are retell . But , in observe these cycles , Bahlul , Coco , Ronald , and maybe even us can develop out of a jaded home to find out something more veritable , even if it is as absurd as anything that materialize in the movie .
Stress Positionspremiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the US Dramatic Competition section .
Cast
