Writer/director/actress/editor/composer Theda Hammel (My Trip to Spain) returned to the Sundance Film Festival with her new NEON-backed film, Stress Positions. During the 2020 lockdown, most film and television creators made a conscious effort to not mention the situation we found ourselves in. Was four years enough time for audiences to look back on it with a sense of humor? It turns out, yes. Yes, it was.
(Courtesy of Sundance Institute/Photo by NEON)
With divorce papers waiting to be signed, Terry (John Early, The Afterparty) finds himself quarantining in a dilapidated New York City residence that his soon-to-be ex-husband purchased to throw parties in. Upstairs lives a curious woman named Coco (Rebecca F. Wright), who came with the house, and downstairs is Terry’s nephew, a recuperating model with a broken leg named Bahlul (Qaher Harhash), whom he barely knows. With news of Terry’s VIP quest quickly circulating throughout his social circles, everyone he knows is suddenly dying to get into his quarantine bubble.
Set during the pandemic but written and filmed more recently, Theda Hammel avoids making fun of the lockdown while finding many moments of comedy within it. A GrubHub delivery man named Ronald (played by co-creator Faheem Ali) serves as a point of connection between Terry and the film’s primary narrator, Karla (portrayed by Theda Hammel), before Terry’s bubble bursts. From frantically trying to disinfect every delivery to hosting a socially distanced backyard barbecue party, John Early is hilarious as a character trying desperately to avoid the virus while also avoiding the next phase of his life.
Through Karla’s narration, Stress Positions delves deep into the concept of voyeurism. Told primarily in the third person, with the exception of some first-person narration from Bahlul, the audience often feels like outsiders viewing something we weren’t meant to see, which is oddly thrilling. There’s a mysterious element to the story, one that is artfully reflected through a mirror motif. What we see isn’t always what we get.
With just two locations to speak of and a small cast, Stress Positions often feels like a screen adaptation of a play. If there’s a message to take away, it’s that control is an illusion, with life routinely throwing curveballs that are beyond our control. Full of queer characters and from a queer creator, the themes will be particularly relevant for members of the queer community, with Stress Positions destined to become a cult classic.
I give Stress Positions 5 out of 5 disco balls.