Princess Cyd (2017)

Princess Cyd: Directed by Stephen Cone. With Marika Mashburn, Jessie Pinnick, Paul Brian Fagen, Keith Kupferer. A 16-year-old girl visits her aunt in Chicago for the summer. While there, she falls for another girl, and she and her aunt challenge each other’s sex and spirit.

“This was not an enjoyable film to watch, and it took a conscious effort of will to stick with it until the end.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is by no means terrible. In fact, on the surface it should have been my kind of flick. The central teen character is struggling with her bisexual identity. I did that when I was her age. She goes to stay with her offbeat bohemian aunt who is a celebrated author, academic, and general all-round intellectual. Well, I used to stay with my offbeat bohemian grandma, who was a celebrated author, academic, and general all-round intellectual. So I should have, at least to some extent, related to this film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut from the outset the whole movie just reeked of intellectual masturbation, of the sort frequently perpetrated by film students.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTechnically it is more competent than a student film, although many of the secondary characters are played by actors who seem inexperienced and lacking technique.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe script is uneven, and way too verbose – to the point that it seems to be deliberately alienating the audience, rather than drawing them in. The direction does the same thing (no surprise since it was directed by the writer), and the first two thirds of the movie lurched from unfinished thought to unrealised idea, with jarring edits that confuse the narrative and create a near-constant state of discomfort in the viewer.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAt first I wondered if the awkward and discordant storytelling was intentional, and if, perhaps, the writer-director wanted to discomfort his audience as a way of proving some deeper point. But by the end of the film I still canu0026#39;t figure out what that point might be.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI should have connected with the story, because of the specific parallels with my own life, and the fact that it has wider resonances with the human experience. But I wasnu0026#39;t able to settle into it until it was nearly over, and then, after a few good scenes, it lurched into a rushed and clunky ending.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUltimately I can only put it down to poor filmmaking, from initial script to final edit.”