Appropriate Behavior
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Out of Order: Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behavior
You’re ruining my birthday! You’re ruining my twenties! Let’s break up! Fine! The storm before the calm hits well into this film about a young Brooklyn woman in and (presumably) out of love. No spoiler this: In the first five minutes we learn that lovers Shirin (writer/director Desiree Akhavan), seen hastily packing, and Maxine (Rebecca Henderson) are going their separate ways. Desiree is going in the literal sense, to a less inviting apartment with two odd roommates attached in Bushwick; Maxine will remain in the love nest in tonier Park Slope that was already hers before they hooked […]
by Howard Feinstein on Jan 16, 2015 -
Liliana Greenfield-Sanders Talks the Wassaic Project’s 2014 Summer Film Festival
Now in its seventh year, the multidisciplinary Wassaic Project’s Summer Festival — whose 2014 edition opens today — offers an intimate screening experience where independent films by emerging filmmakers mix with art, music, dance and the great outdoors. It’s probably the only festival where films are projected in a Cattle Auction Ring, a fact doubly surprising given the festival’s location just two hours from New York on Metro North’s Harlem Line. The Wassaic Project is a non-profit that has as its mission the creation of “genuine and intimate context for art making and strengthening local community by increasing social and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 1, 2014 -
Women of Sundance: Appropriate Behavior
“So, is this exciting to you, or, like, totally normal by now?” director Desiree Akhavan asked her executive producer, Katie Mustard, when we three met over coffee just two weeks after their film, Appropriate Behavior, was accepted into Sundance’s NEXT section. While this is Akhavan and her London-based producer Cecilia Frugiuelle’s first time at Sundance, Mustard has had nine films there – seven features and two shorts. Mustard had been drawn to come on board Akhavan’s film because the script was “just so good” and so “fresh.” Akhavan, who stars in the film as an Iranian-American bisexual struggling to find […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 21, 2014 -
Park City Critic’s Notes #2: How Should a Family Be?
Everybody has dreams at Sundance. Some dream of distribution deals, others of the respect and recognition that may come with them. The most exuberant dreamers conjure the high seven-figure sales of yesteryear, but the ranks of such folks are dying away, the reality of the new normal having long set in. Some just want to get laid or go skiing and dream accordingly. Lucky them. Still others can’t navigate Sundance without complaining about this or that. A lot of folks are upset by the shuttles this year, claiming they aren’t as efficient as years past. More pressing, some observers have […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 19, 2014 -
Five Questions with Appropriate Behavior Director Desiree Akhavan
Fans of Desiree Akhavan and Ingrid Jungermann’s comedic web series The Slope could not have guessed at the impressive range that Akhavan displays in her debut feature, Appropriate Behavior. As emotionally devastating as it is uproarious, Behavior stars Akhavan as Shirin, a woman dealing the aftermath of a breakup with a serious girlfriend (Rebecca Henderson), as well as her prolonged struggles to come out as bisexual to her Persian-American family. The film rings deeply personal and true, and Akhavan manages to establish herself as a real star-to-watch and the rare triple threat – a witty writer, a nimble director, and […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 18, 2014 -
The Women of Sundance 2014
Women, this is our year. I don’t say this because I’ve got numbers to back me up (because I don’t), or because I’m generally an overly optimistic cheerleader of life (though I am). I say this because it’s our only choice. This has to be our year. As Sundance kicks off in Park City, a large handful of women are about to debut their new films and fresh voices to the world. And after interviewing almost all of them myself I can say, in my most eloquent terms, that this year’s slate of Sundance female filmmakers is absolutely badass. The […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 17, 2014 -
Appropriate Behavior | Director Desiree Akhavan
Attention, our audience’s and our own — it’s a valued commodity these days. We struggle to command our audience’s attention, for them to discover our work and then, once they’ve discovered it, to actually focus on it. Meanwhile, we struggle to focus our own attention, to fight our society’s weapons of mass distraction so we can not just see our work to completion but fully discover the meanings within it. What role does attention play in your work? Can you discuss an instance where you thought about some aspect of attention when it came to your film? My editor and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 17, 2014 -
The Sundance Queer Preview — 2014 Edition
The most exciting film festival in America gets underway next week. The prestigious Sundance Film Festival will unspool more than 120 new features, shorts, documentaries and innovative media projects in Park City, Utah from January 16th to 26th — showcasing, as always, a hefty slate of LGBT films for the edification of the citizens of Utah and the visiting masses. With the Sundance stamp of approval chances are good that you’ll be seeing many of these have some kind of release in 2014 (whether at your own local LGBT film fest, art house theater, digital platform or else on DVD). […]
by Jenni Olson on Jan 14, 2014
