An actor struggles to connect with her co-star during the filming of a horror movie in this off-kilter satire probing normative ideas of desirability on screen.
Rosenthal (Adam Pearson, Under the Skin 2013) and Mabel (Jess Weixler) meet on the set of a European auteur’s first English language movie. This film-within-a-film of patients turning on their mad doctor sets up a pitch-black meta-commentary on cinema’s idolisation of beauty and representation of disability on screen.
Part Tod Browning’s Freaks 1932 and part the behind-the-scenes melodrama of R.W. Fassbinder’s Beware of a Holy Whore 1971, writer/director Aaron Schimberg’s deeply layered and engaging feature exudes a sense of playfulness –right down to Herr Director’s (Charlie Korsmo) Werner Herzog impersonation.
Details
| Year: | 2018 |
| Classification: | Ages 15+ |
| Country: | USA |
| Language: | English |
| Director: | Aaron Schimberg |
| Producer: | Vanessa McDonnell, Daniel Patrick Carbone, Matthew Petock, Dan Schoenbrun, Zachary Shedd |
| Cast: | Jess Weixler, Adam Pearson, Stephen Plunkett |
| Script: | Aaron Schimberg |
| Program strand: | Features |
| Rights: | Reel Suspects |