Appropriate Behavior

Appropriate Behavior is one of the best WLW comedies I’ve seen in a while. It’s also one of the best WLW comedies full stop.

Appropriate Behavior is about Shirin. Shirin is a bisexual Brooklyn hipster whose parents are Persian immigrants. She is not yet out to her parents. As a result, they are confused as to why she stopped living with Maxine, who they believe was Shirin’s roommate. Of course, Maxine actually was her girlfriend whom she recently broke up with.

The character work in Appropriate Behavior is exceptional. You know who these characters are immediately. There’s never any info dumps. Instead, Appropriate Behaviour uses natural sounding conversations as well as a characters’ style of talking and mannerisms to tell the audience who this person is. It’s done very successfully.

This movie is so funny. The vast majority of jokes land and they land hard. I laughed out loud multiple times. Not just a smile and an exhale of air through my nostrils. Desiree Akhavan is brilliant at recognizing a situation that is inherently humorous. But unlike some comedies, she doesn’t stop there. She goes a step farther and takes that situation and and milks every ounce of possible humour from it. This is not lazy comedy. When I’m writing notes on comedies I’m going to review usually I jot down jokes that worked particularly well. By the half hour mark of Appropriate Behavior, I had given up because so many of the jokes were so successful.

I’m borderline pissed off about how talented writer/director/lead actor Desiree Akhavan is. This movie is exceptionally good and it’s clear that all of that is down to her. The writing is Appropriate Behavior is exceptional. The directing elevates the writing even further. Additionally, Akhavan inhabits the character of Shirin so fully it’s easy to forget that she’s acting. I’m almost furious at how good Akhavan is. It’s like she’s hoarding talent. She’s brilliant at writing, directing AND acting? How about you save something for the rest of us, you modern-day genius?

This movie is so good. Akhavan is an exceptional talent. Appropriate Behavior is a brilliant showcase of that. This movie is both laugh-out-loud funny and also does have something to say about the identities that Akhavan/Shirin inhabit. Overall, Appropriate Behavior is just wholly successful and I highly recommend giving it a watch.

Overall rating: 9/10

Other WLW films in similar genres