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November 24, 2008
Get Yeast
You'll have to once again excuse the paucity of content here. No reason, really. Or maybe just a million of them. In any case, I'll make a firm commitment to waxing more frequently in the coming week, just prior to another enforced lull (more on that momentarily, after I get over the temporary boycrush induced by getting a private Rufus Wainwright show the other morning).
Today's news is that Yeast, Mary Bronstein's award-winning debut feature, is now available via Amazon VOD. A highly concentrated shot of misanthropic estrogen on the one hand, an unbelievably shrill exercise in cinematic effrontery on the other, the film exceeds its meager origins and production value through sheer abrasiveness - and, too, a very finely tuned wit. Indeed, I was prepared for the film's successive induction of cringes, but what surprised me was the almost cathartic delight that emerged from all that friction. This is a very, very funny movie.
It's also a very feminine movie. Bronstein writes in her directors' notes that the film is "an exploration of the cruelties that are spewed in ever direction during the course of a close friendship," which is true: we tend to hurt those closest to us. But what is particularly fascinating about this psychological fracas - to this viewer, at least - is that it is so specific to the fairer sex, which emerges stripped bare, unvarnished and just as complex as ever. I love it.
Posted by David Lowery at November 24, 2008 4:41 PM
Comments
The win at St. Louis was well deserved. Watching the film with an audience was a highlight of the festival.
Posted by: Aaron at November 25, 2008 9:27 AM