Suddenly

One of my toxic traits as a film critic is my disinterest and disconnect with 90’s indie cinema. I’m sure it was cool and groundbreaking at the time. But whatever elements that made it such feel unavailable to me viewing it in the 2020’s. Suddenly is technically 2000’s indie cinema. But the style comes right out of the 90’s indie boom. It’s even shot in black and white. And for whatever reason, I kind dug this one. All of my notes on the movie are largely critical, yet there’s something to Suddenly. That being said, it doesn’t appear like many other people feel this way. Additionally, I can’t even justify what I actually liked about the movie. It had potential, I guess. So while I personally found Suddenly interesting and engaging, I don’t think that opinion holds much weight as I can’t even fully justify it to myself.

Marcia lives a quiet life and works a boring job in the city. Until one day, she’s accosted by a lesbian couple named Mao and Lenin. Mao keeps offering and insisting to have sex with Marcia, which Marcia declines. Despite this, Marcia does spend some more time with the two, which ends with Mao and Lenin kidnapping her. However, by the time they get to the sea, Marcia seems more or less okay with the whole situation. The three women decide to visit Lenin’s elderly aunt, Blanca. Blanca allows them to stay with her. During this time, Marcia experiments with Mao and Lenin reconnects with Blanca and her family.

I think what I liked about Suddenly was that it always felt intriguing. I wasn’t sure where the movie was going until at least halfway through. Initially, I thought it would be a crime spree-type movie. Or, a shallow villainization of gay communists. Really, this movie is a character and relationship study. And even when it settles into that, it’s still interesting. We’ve got family dynamics, love triangles, sexual experimentation and several, varied female perspectives. I was always interested to see where Suddenly would go next. Hell, I even think the black and white added to this. It made the movie feel even more isolated from my experience, yet like it was still inviting me to view something personal. The past is another country, as they say. So is Argentina. Suddenly opens up a window to this. Though it’s a window focusing on some very unique individuals.

Where the movie falls down is that the depiction of these individuals is coming from someone outside of this lifestyle. And you can tell. I felt trepidation when I saw this movie about lesbian punks was made by a someone with a male name. And Diego Lerman never really disproved my concerns. Lenin and Mao don’t always read as believable people. I can absolutely buy some lesbian punks naming themselves after controversial communist figures. I can also believe they’d do crime. But Mao’s continuing sexual harassment and disregard of consent feels like an outlier trait for politically aware, queer punks. This issue is best exemplified in a scene where Marcia and Mao have sex. A young man watches them through a crack in the door. Mao notices him watching, and goes right back to what she was doing. Essentially, a scene of queer women performing their sexuality for a man.

That being said, by the end of the film, the characters have developed enough that they read as individuals instead of stereotypes. It’s a great to see how Lenin and Mao, who not only act the same, but look so similar have such different journeys in the film. I was concerned the whole film that Suddenly would basically be a condemnation of Lenin and Mao’s lifestyle. But by the end, I don’t think that’s true. It becomes increasingly clear that Mao as an individual is the problem. Not because she’s queer or a communist, but because she sucks. And that’s the right way to depict a shitty member of a marginalized group in media. Make them a specific enough character that it becomes clear that they suck as an individual, but don’t represent a condemnation of their whole identity or community.

What worked about Suddenly was how much potential the film had. And I don’t think all of that is fully realized. But it’s such an interesting premise and there’s enough creativity here that my brain met the movie halfway and filled in some of the weak spots. The fact that the film allows that at all is a good sign. But none of this changes the fact that a lot of the textual elements of this film are troubling and often, not as radical as I want them to be. Still, I enjoyed the film. Or at least, its characters. I think Suddenly would be a really interesting choice for a movie that gets a sequel 20 years after the first. I would love to catch up with all of these characters and see where they are in present day.

Overall rating: 5.7/10

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