'Stress Positions' Review: Finally, A COVID-set Comedy With Smart Commentary
Ever since I had to watch the screener off my phone on a Sunday morning for a freelance assignment at Xtra Magazine, I couldn't stop thinking about Theda Hammel's Stress Positions an unequalable thought-provoking, Millennial American movie about the realest, worst queers ever. Initially, I flipped out over her backdrop being peak-COVID 2020 because if I were to cover one more COVID-19 movie, that would've been my 13th reason why. Yet, unlike the myriad of COVID-era movies I've covered over the last several years, Hammel employed it to say something about our culture that nobody else dared to: Millennial liberals aren't as progressive as they think they are. She had more to say about modern America than Alex Garland's Civil War did.
NR
Runtime: 1 Hr and 35 Minutes
Production Companies: Seaview, Roller Studios
Distributor: NEON
Director: Theda Hammel
Writers: Theda Hammel, Faheem Ali
Cast: John Early, Theda Hammel, Qaher Harhash, Amy Zimmer, Faheem Ali, Rebecca F. Wright, Davidson Obennebo, John Roberts
Release Date: April 19, 2024
In Theaters Only
Terry (John Early), a manic boy failure, separated from his toxic ex-husband Leo (John Roberts) – who still pays the rent for Terry's run-down apartment, which was solely used for parties. At the height of 2020, Terry is rehabilitating his 19-year-old Moroccan model nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash), who has a broken foot. Terry's friends, Karla (Theda Hammel), her author girlfriend Vanessa (Amy Zimmer), and Terry's upstairs anti-mask neighbor Coco (Rebecca F. Wright), all stop by to meet the model. To Terry's dismay, everyone invades his and Bahlul's personal space and projects their insecurities and ignorance about Bahlul's identity onto him, deflecting from the rut in their lives.
Stress Positions might be the first movie in a long time that made me go, “Wow, the Bush administration did a number on millennial minds, especially the ones on the ground floor in NYC.” This is the most acute, satirical portrayal of post-9/11 American culture I've seen on film. Hammel formulates a raw portrayal of Millennial patheticism fueled by her ensemble’s pure ignorance. It's intoxicating whenever a writer pens messy, toxic queer characters, fleshing out the notion that, hey, just because they're out in their identities doesn't mean they’re flawless. You'd find this crew at a protest as a means to socialize but deflect if you call them out on their performative actions. Once Terry's pals meet Bahlul, they all go down the xenophobia checklist:
Misconceptions about his people
Asking the brown-skinned kid questions about Middle Eastern countries he’s not even affiliated with
Being hella xenophobic but in a faux-liberal sense
Even in NEW YORK CITY, “progressive” people are LGBT-InQonsiderate when it comes to race and backgrounds – especially from Middle Eastern territories – as if they can’t spare a minute to Google a map of the area. As a born-and-bred Brooklynite (some scenes feature street corners of my neighborhood), flashes of uncomfortable conversations I've found myself in came rushing back through Terry and Karla.
Hammel adds an alluring, juxtapositional layer through soft-spoken, interlude-like narrations from Karla and Bahlul, centralizing the friend group's backgrounds and Bahlul's identity before moving to America. Those narrations break up the monotony of the chaotic conversations and screwball comedy among the players. Everyone is so comfortable and confident in living as shells of themselves, but when it's time to put their money where their mouth is, they either fail to rise to the occasion or act impulsively.
Discussions of xenophobia and faux white liberalism aside, I felt that its heavy-handed dialogue bouts are well balanced with the screwball genre deviation, often landing successfully through Early's confident performance. As Hammel gets on her Billy Wilder shit behind the camera and screenplay, Early bridges distress in a comedic and dramatic sense, reminding me of Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, with a familiar “Judd Apatow man-child protagonist” coat. Through him and his tragic background, Hammel expresses that even gay uncles can suck as much as your straight ones.
Only some heavy-handed themes and slapstick mesh as naturally as they should. Still, I felt the moments where it went for the jugular with pieces like Bahlul's realization of oneself and his sad family unit – along with a "Chekov's Theragun" reveal in the finale – had the same thematic and structural impact of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.
Bridging screwball with bold social commentary, rounded out with an outstanding John Early performance, Theda Hammel's Stress Positions is a remarkable COVID-set flick that throws ripe tomatoes at American liberal millennials in all their blunt performative mindsets.
Rating: 4/5 | 88%
