Appropriate Behavior

I will admit that its weakest part is character development, fleshing out supporting charcters and its pointless ending, however it is entertaining and makes you laugh. I love that it did not take itself seriously and, as a non-white person, you understand where she is coming from in terms of her family, she is not an annoying Hanna from Girls or an annoying Frances Ha. Culture plays a role and, more importantly, there are other characters pointing her flaws, as well. I love that she was bi and in a relationship with a woman and not a cheater. Impressive enough on itself in terms of representation. I just had fun. I only wish the ending were not so meh.

There's a certain type of movie that Sundance always selects: quirky comedies about lovable oddballs who are in the middle of a crisis and want everyone to know about it. This is Appropriate Behavior. I will say in its favour that there isn't enough bisexual representation in cinema nor is there enough about American- Iranians. This has both, but at the same time writer director Desiree Akhavan doesn't want to examine either aspect in depth. This is both refreshing because these aspects of lead character Shirin's identity are assured aspects of who she is and aren't part of her crisis, and frustrating because aside from these elements there is nothing that makes this movie stand out in any way from the quirky indie comedies that come out every year from Sundance.

Behavior is about Shirin (played by Akhavan). Recently having broken up with the live-in girlfriend her conservative Persian parents thought was her "roommate" the film plays in pieces as we watch Akhavan try to put her life back together without the woman who defined so much of it. As a bonus we are also treated to flashbacks of the rise and fall of her relationship with her ex. It is... not very exciting.

The film is written with so many pithy one liners you can tell it was written to death. This makes for great screencaps and dialogue you can use as gif sets but as an overarching script with characterization not so much. The narrative is fairly elegantly sliced and diced so that you get just the right amount of mix of past and present but at the same time... Just who cares? This feels directly aimed at a group of lost 20 somethings stumbling their way through life, but as a lost 20 something myself I'm sick of seeing these kind of movies (always set in NYC!) and the individual scenes don't really do anything for me. There are still some aspects that make this movie watchable: a threesome that goes wrong (I'm always partial to sex scenes that are good and by good I mean manage to maintain the flow of the story. So many movies just have all plot and emotion stop to get a few thrusts in. Akhavan understands how to continue to build the narrative using the sex scene). The ending of the film is very cathartic and pitch perfect as well.

How Akhavan manages to nail some of the most difficult aspects of filmmaking while flubbing the middle is beyond me. It gives me hope however that she'll continue to improve.

I make an effort not to know too much about a film before I see it. That helps me have an experience less tainted by expectations, but it can also lead me to silly snap judgments that are dead wrong.

After a few minutes I'd decided that Desiree Akhavan's Appropriate Behavior was just another in a long string of low budget 20- something self-involved dramedies I've seen in the last couple of years. But by the end I realized that Akhavan had taken that trope, and run her own unique and very funny spin on it. And the humor was a big part of what made it special. This movie was flat out funny. It wasn't afraid of being absurd or larger than life, or actively witty. It was intensely human and touching at times, but it also had great comic timing. In that respect Ahkavan's cinematic view of life and relationships in New York has more in common with Woody Allen circa Annie Hall and Manhattan than most mumblecore we've grown used to. She also created a unusually lovable (if self-sabotaging) main character for herself in Shirin; a bi-sexual young Iranian woman still in the closet to her parents, and attempting to recover from a painful breakup.

Shirin doesn't really fit in anywhere. Because she's bi, lesbians (including the woman who broke her heart) view her with suspicion, assuming she's 'just visiting' relationships with women. Her parents keep waiting for her to meet a nice boy. She feels estranged from the Iranian-American culture she grew up with, but she's not as self-consciously hip and cool as the hipster poseurs she's surrounded by. And she has a knack for making some comic but awful life decisions, from a painfully failed threesome, to a gig teaching film-making to disinterested 5 year olds.

This is a rueful and smart film about how screwed up and alone we all are… and yet how sweet life is in it's sad and silly way. It's an impressive calling card for Akhavan, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she does next.

Follow up -- I saw this again, sharing it with some friends, and found it only grew on me. I was even more touched by the sweet heart at the middle of the comedy.

Appropriate Behavior (2014) is a self-serving film writing by, directed by, and starring Desiree Akhaven. The movie follows Shirin, a twenty-something woman, who is tall, beautiful, bisexual, and of Iranian heritage. Sounds interesting, right? Wrong.

Shirin doesn't appear to have any connection to anything other than herself and her love life. We never see her display any interest in art, music, or theater. She isn't interested in politics or human rights. She's not particularly interested in her Iranian cultural heritage, except to decry it. She scorns her brother's perfect traditional fiancée, without realizing that this beautiful young woman is a pediatric plastic surgeon, specializing in burns.

OK--What is it that Shirin really likes? Drinking, dancing, and sex. Not too impressive a résumé, in my opinion. So . . . If you think you'll be charmed by a move with Shirin at its center, this is the film for you. If not, make a different choice. If you choose to see it, it will work well on DVD. We saw it at The Little Theatre as part of the fine ImageOut, the Rochester LGBT Film Festival.

In Brooklyn, Shirin is lost after breaking up with her girlfriend Maxine. She's got a Masters in journalism but no job. Her Persian family doesn't know about her bisexuality. Her brother is annoyingly successful. Her boy-crazy friend Crystal recommends her to Ken (Scott Adsit) for a job teaching movie-making to kids but it turns out to be more like daycare. There are constant flashbacks to her relationship with Maxine as she tries to move on with other people.

At its heart, the movie is the traditional single-gal-in-the-city. Desiree Akhavan infuses it with a little bit of a Persian family and bisexuality which keeps it fresh. Her writing is pretty good especially for her theatrical debut. There are a couple of really good laughs. Buying a bra scene is really funny with Crystal's reactions. I also love her mother's reaction to her coming out. Desiree's acting is pretty good but not great. Overall, this is a nice little angsty indie and hopefully this is the start of an interesting new voice.