Writer-director Joanna Arnow’s new film follows Ann (Arnow), a woman in her thirties stagnating in a long-term submissive sexual relationship with an older man, Allen (Scott Cohen). In a series of biting vignettes, Ann navigates the millennial trifecta of a dead-end corporate job, the online dating scene, and the struggle to keep the peace with a family constantly questioning her life choices.
Arnow shows a fearless vulnerability in her performance as Ann, even in the most physically and emotionally awkward situations. Ann’s detached affect belies a gentle tenacity as she steadily makes small changes to her routine and relationships to explore what she wants at this point in her life. But it’s the sharpness of the script and rhythmic precision of the editing that heralds Arnow as a major talent. Each scene ends on the exact right beat to wring out the funniest, most cringe-worthy details before plunging us back into the elliptical mundaneness of Ann’s life. (Synopsis from Toronto International Film Festival 2023)
“These three respective strands — sexual, professional, familial — are the major prisms through which we view Ann’s life. In casting herself as Ann, Arnow the director is able to ask for an unusual degree of exposure from her lead actor, both physically (she is naked for a high proportion of the runtime) and psychologically (Ann is tough but vulnerable, often blank and affectless while somehow simultaneously conveying intriguing depth). “ —Catherine Bray, Variety “Arnow is one of a new generation of American filmmakers (such as Kit Zauar) exploring the self-referential dramedy, giving voice to those whom society has left on the curb - there is a certain amount of privilege, and Arnow doesn't hide that...But with background in comics, with editing this film, she also gives it an atypical rhythm, one that is reminiscent of the punctuations of the memorable and the banal that often find only the barest separation.” —Shelagh Rowan-Legg, Screen Anarchy
