FILM
There's a perverse fascination in tracing a character's slide into nervous breakdown. In States of Control, I had anticipated the usual quiet devolution of the thirtysomething writer played by Jennifer Van Dyck.
Instead, she takes on superhero strength. In one scene, she beats up a would-be mugger. Elsewhere, she dabbles in anonymous sex and porno to defrost her libido. She follows a twisted survivalist code that forces her to go days without food or sleep. A woman who was once a humdrum nonentity accrues untapped physical strength and emotional overconfidence.
Director Zack Winestine, a cinematographer who began his career working on Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, employs a docudrama format that skirts the edges of surrealism. We may not identify with his nihilistic heroine, yet it is impossible not to recognize the same damaging forces of daily existence in our world.
States of Control opens in September in New York and Los Angeles, followed by release in other cities. Phaedra Cinema: +1 (323) 938 9610.
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