Review: Appropriate Behavior
Millenial malaise permeates the current culture like some tentacular affliction, with aimless self-dramatists prone to passive-aggressive self-exposure and overly articulating themselves in thera-speak, quotables, and sound bites. Lena Dunham, with her observational cunning and frank fearlessness, is the supreme leader of this particular breed. Love her or hate her, Dunham's particular yet universal perspective is the barometer against which works like Appropriate Behavior will be measured.
Writer-director Desiree Akhavan possesses the specificity but it's still enmeshed in a level of superficiality for Akhavan to have a fully-formed voice. Viewer tolerance of a heroine prone to uttering variations of "I'm going to lie here and try to forget what it felt like to be loved," Brooklynites who focus on sandcastle art integrating found objects or who have a hybrid stand-up folk-singing schtick, or elementary schoolkids enrolled in afterschool filmmaking classes where they're tasked to do a shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds is a crucial indicator of how much one will enjoy or be irritated by Akhavan's debut feature.
Akhavan stars as Shirin, a twentysomething bisexual Iranian-American who has just broken up with her girlfriend Maxine (Rebecca Henderson). Shirin's reluctance to come out to her understanding but traditional parents (Hooman Majd and Ahn Duong) was a key factor in the breakup, though dodging appears to be Shirin's modus operandi in life. Her degree in journalism gathers dust as she remains gainfully unemployed until the forever stoned Jimmy (Scott Adsit, the MVP of the supporting cast) hires her to teach an afterschool filmmaking class. She's desperate to reconcile with the reluctant Maxine, and drifts from one sexual encounter to another.
The threesome she has with a fairly well-to-do couple may be highlight of the film. Wordless but emotionally complex, the scene is emblematic of how displaced Shirin is in her personal, professional, sexual, and cultural lives. Akhavan rises to the occasion here, shedding the deadpan snark to expose a raw, melancholy nerve.
Most of Appropriate Behavior is comprised of episodic displays of Shirin's indecisiveness and lack of forward momentum, which is problematic given the character can be an exasperating and prickly pear. Unlike Dunham's Girls, in which most everyone is adrift but not in stasis, there's no sense of direction with Shirin. Somehow she'll get to where she needs to be, the film seems to be saying, though the statement is lacking of any conviction.
Nevertheless, Akhavan balances the issues of culture, identity, and sexuality with a light and sensitive touch. Structure, dialogue, and pacing need some refining, but Akhavan displays a good deal of promise.
Appropriate Behavior
Directed by: Desiree Akhavan
Written by: Desiree Akhavan
Starring: Desiree Akhavan, Rebecca Henderson, Halley Feiffer, Hooman Majd, Ahn Duong, Arian Moayed, Scott Adsit
