Signature Move

Signature Move (2017) was directed by Jennifer Reeder. It's a pleasant enough lesbian love story. What makes it somewhat unusual is that the two lovers come from very different cultures.

Fawzia Mirza portrays Zaynab, a very successful immigration lawyer, who lives with her mother, Parveen, played very well by Shabana Azmi .

Sari Sanchez portrays Alma, a woman who lives within Chicago's Mexican-American culture. Sari's mother is a wrestling coach. Zaynab begins to take wrestling lessons. The remainder of the film is based upon the chemistry between Zaynab and Alma and Zaynab and wrestling.

The publicity for the films warns us that Parveen's quest for a husband for her daughter isn't played stereotypically. (If the publicity warns you that something isn't so, it usually means something is so.) Parveen is so eager to find a husband for her daughter that she searches the street with binoculars. (Looks stereotypic to me.) However, Shabana Azmi is so skilled that we can enjoy her acting, even if the part she's given isn't realistic. Both Fawzia Mirsa and Sari Sanchez are fine actors as well, so the movie is strengthened by the strong acting of the leads.

We saw this film in Rochester's excellent Little Theatre. It was shown as part of the wonderful ImageOut, the Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen, and is worth seeking out and watching.

Signature Move was well-received at its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. It is a beautiful film. As the director alluded to in her introduction, the film is a lesbian love story between a Pakistan- American Muslim immigration lawyer and Mexican-American bookstore owner in a peaceful diverse Chicago. Basically, it is about everything Donald Trump hates! More seriously, it is about a diverse multicultural melting pot where people of different cultures come together and learn from each other and grow and sometimes come to love each other. The film is well-acted and the script is quite subtle. I particularly enjoyed the performances of Fawzia Mizra as Zaynab and Shabbana Azmi as her mother. The family relationship as Zaynab gradually figures out how to share her true self with her traditional mother is compelling. There are parts of the story that are a little too predictable, but basically it very enjoyable and a great anecdote to today's mean-spirited political climate.

Interesting film, with great characters.

It has great representation for the LGB community.

It was good to see the dynamics of family life being tied in with this. Alongside bringing in two different cultures, and some back story of them across generations.

The wrestling was also awesome 👌.

I loved the mum and her binoculars too.

At the end we could have seen a little more about the mother - daughter relationship between the main character and her mother and how that develops.

Overall quite a heart warming film.

I loved the ending, with the main characters "signature" move, it was the perfect way to end the film.

This is a new queer classic! I loved everything about this movie. It was funny, and sweet, and just awesome! Can't wait to see more from the folks who made it, we need more uplifting tales like this!

This movie has a 100% On Rotten Tomatoes and an 89% audience score, so this poor rating here does not reflect how good the film actually is. One fairly unhinged review on this movie is tanking the IMDb score unfairly and that's so annoying cause this movie deserves every award it won and then some.

I was suspended by how much I liked this film. It was heartwarming and enjoyable to watch. I think 89% is the perfect score for it.

I think it's biggest (only?) fault is the Lucha plot feels shoe horned in. I feel like Lucha Libre wasn't really given the respect it deserved and served as little more than a quirky plot device. I would be absolutely floored to find out anyone in the cast/writing team actually knows much about Lucha.

Otherwise this was a really great film and definitely worth a watch.