She Must Be Seeing Things is most interesting as a time capsule of an underground community from years past. However, even without this aspect, it’s still a solid film. This one really surprised me with how much I liked it.
The film is about lesbian couple Agatha and Jo. Agatha is a lawyer while Jo is an arsty filmmaker type. Jo is also extremely sexual and has a long history with male sex partners as well as not always respecting monogamy. After Agatha discovers Jo’s diary detailing numerous sexual encounters, she beings to worry Jo isn’t being faithful to her. This problem persists and deepens as Jo starts filming her new movie. The film takes much of Jo’s time, attention and money. Agatha worries it’s not just work but one of the crew members that’s keeping Jo from coming home at night.
Okay, that plot summary sounds boring as hell. This movie should be boring. It’s understated and very low budget. And yet to my surprise, She Must Be Seeing Things really engaged me. It helps that the film walks the line of characters feeling real but not boring. Agatha and Jo absolutely feel like real people who exist instead of characters. Their lives are mundane enough to again, seem realistic. What helps is while that Jo and Agatha seem like real people, they’re also interesting people. Through character work and dialogue that helps move the plot and characters forwards, I became interested in their mundane lives.
Plus, there’s a sense of underlying darkness to She Must Be Seeing Things. We only get peeks of it, an extended visual involving worms and some disturbing passages of Jo’s diary. Subtle though it is, there is a real sense that Jo and Agatha are teetering on the edge of something much more intense than their mundane lives might suggest. At times, the film reminded me of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet but on a budget of like, $15. There’s a real feeling that if you only scratch the surface of these women’s lives, what is revealed would be very dark and disturbing.
She Must Be Seeing Things is undeniably low budget. But wow! It makes great use of its minuscule budget. The film works well within its means. It knows it can’t go full Lynch surreal, so it doesn’t. She Must Be Seeing Things stays in the realm of what is fiscally possible for them. Within those confines, the film crafts the best story they can. I’ve often said a good screenplay is free in regards to low budget movies. This is a case where they clearly agree. The script is immaculate. Clearly a lot of thought went into how they could tell this story within their means and they succeeded in doing so.
The film also feels years ahead of its time. The two lead characters are a lesbian couple, one of whom is a person of colour whose job involves her defending indigenous rights. It’s also extremely sexually frank. By 1987, it’s not like it was uncommon for films to be sexually explicit. What makes She Must Be Seeing Things different is that sex is actually discussed, explored and used as part of a theme instead of just being there for visual interest. The way the film touches on some of the sexual incompatibility between Jo and Agatha with way more depth and impressive blunt frankness that I rarely see in movies nowadays let alone 40 years ago.
I really expected to be bored by this cheap underground lesbian movie. Instead, She Must Be Seeing Things surprised me with its well-crafted story featuring realistic and interesting characters and hints of darkness lying just beneath the surface. Even the film-within-a-film is interesting! It’s a lesbian cross-dressing nun story that was cool to see within the framework of the film but never overtakes the main plot by becoming more interesting. (It also helps that I’ve already seen the movie Jo is making at least twice). I was pleasantly surprised by how solid and fascinating She Must Be Seeing Things is both as a depiction of an underground community from years gone but also on the merits of the story it told and how it did so.
Overall rating: 7.5/10
Other WLW films in similar genres
Ahead of its time
Serial cheaters
According to my quick googling, you’re one of the only people who left a comprehensive review of this film so thank you! You expressed many things I felt but far more articulately than I did. Watched it on Kanopy and while I didn’t love it, I appreciate it for what it is. Also watched Aniara off the strength of your review alone! It has a fascinating premise and interesting ideas but the relationship came off really underdeveloped to me? Or maybe I’m sick of the whole baby thing. Inescapable even in space. Either way it was a worthwhile watch.
Absolutely the relationship in Aniara was underdeveloped. For me what I loved about the film was more of the concepts and broader themes. The lead character was just a utility for the plot to have some sort of central character to return to. Which absolutely does mean her actual character and especially relationships don’t get adequate focus. I also think the relationship and the baby thing are sort of holdovers from the original text having a male lead character. Aniara’s gender-swap mentality seems to be to just cast a female lead and not really change any of the events or focus. But because it is now a queer relationship and queer motherhood, some more or different focus could’ve benefited the film.