Bad at Dancing

I expected the sexual material to put me off this film – the text about the film warned it was explicit but not sexy. This is indeed the case. The film seems to be about the relationship where a less- confident friend tries to ride the coat of her more confident friend. At the same time the confident friend seems to like the superior feel she has. However, in terms of delivering this, the film does it in ways which are exaggerated in an art-house / student film sort of way.

I'm sure I'll reveal my lack of culture, and will never fit in with the New York festival crowds, but the heart of the characters was lost for me below the self-consciously pretentious and 'edgy' delivery. The sexual material was part of it, but everything seemed to be constructed rather than flowing. The clipped dialogue felt deliberately structured; the scenes always seemed to push for 'oddity' (whether it was with a face-mask, on the toilet, or of course next to people having sex). In pushing the third-wheel idea to such extremes, it loses any short at nuance – I guess there must be smartness in the dialogue and the choice of scene, but it was beyond me.

I just found it to be quite infuriating – it was aiming very much for a particular crowd, and really had no interest in reaching viewers outside that set.