A Recommendation

I'm kinda surprised that this is even showing here at all, given the puritanistic tendencies of the Censorship Board, but I guess we have to appreciate what slips through their fingers.

Sexual Dependency, a Bolivian film, is currently showing at Cineleisure Orchard, and I highly recommend it. I saw it at the Chicago Film Festival, and it left quite an impression on me.

First, it was exhausting on the eye. The film is presented in constant split-screens, and it gets very tiring very quickly, trying to decide which side of the screen to watch, or to watch both sides at the same time. Sometimes they're almost the same thing - different takes of the same scene from almost the same camera position - and sometimes they're vastly different, crossing time and space. Perhaps this was done as a physical manifestation of the difficult choices the characters have to make, perhaps not. Either way, it can either be a pretentious act or a really cool thing, depending on which side of the fence you choose. But some of the interactions and juxtapositions between the different images can get really interesting.

Second, it's extremely exhausting, emotionally. The actors seem to be non-professionals, which give their performances a raw and dynamic quality. And bad shit happens. The plot summary on IMDb says:

A poor girl, a rich stud, a university student and a model -- nothing in common, except the desire to experience true intimacy. Their stories unfold and overlap as each becomes victim to their own sexual dependencies, self-perceptions and illusions. Thematically structured around issues of femininity, masculinity, virginity, rape and sexuality, each teen struggles to make sense of their own identity, reaching for ideals that represent everything they feel they are supposed to be, but are not.

Sounds painful? You bet it is. But then again, if you're craving a movie experience that can get to you emotionally and viscerally, then this is something you'd wanna check out.