The US-based distributor TriCoast Worldwide launched its indie/auteur banner Rock Salt Releasing in early 2018 and like any film distributors, whether funded by a conglomerate, indie or studio-indie, they must be facing an uncertain future. It is heartening then to see that they are using Amazon Prime for audiences and Vimeo for reviewers as platforms to make their acquisitions available for an audience and still offer a showcase for the talent they’re backing. In the case of ‘Softness Of Bodies’ (Blady,J. 2018) one imagines that this would have been a staple fixture in festivals worldwide in the spring of 2020, where I can only assume that it would have found its rather niche audience.
'Softness Of Bodies' is the tale of Charlotte Parks, an American living in Berlin on an artist’s visa and trying to carve out a career as a poet (wait, come back!). Her lifestyle is seemingly in a stasis of poetry readings, kleptomaniacal impulses, bitching about rival poet Sylvie and being ‘the other woman’ in a dead-end affair with good looking deadbeat Remo. The opening 25 minutes transport us to this world of a self-indulgent navel-gazing generation Y-ers, with Charlotte as the epitome of their disaffection; imagine someone weaponised a Sugababe – all eyerolls, faux-boredom and none of the catchy hooks. I am sure that Dasha Nekrasova is a fine performer, but here she plays Charlotte as though she is struggling to emerge from a catatonic stupor and is asked to demonstrate so little range in the arduous 74mins running time.
Jordan Blady is obviously drawing influence from films such as the ‘Before Trilogy’, and I am aware that, having found those films self-indulgent and tiresome, that I am not his target audience. I am also aware that there will be a target audience, of avowed arthouse/indie film lovers who will take something from this rather arch tale. I can certainly appreciate that the work of cinematographer Christian Huck stands out, with every shot lit and framed with meaningful intent, whilst Julia Elger’s editing uses jump cuts and sound bridges to inject some verve into the proceedings. But it is here where my praise for this film runs out.
Blady’s script is populated with quasi-intellectual poetry or poetry-criticism, however there is a nice subtext that Charlotte is such a kleptomaniac that even her poetry is stolen (from ‘The New York School’) though it would take a very niche audience to spot whether or not this is true and therefore amusing. His characters are also clichés, the flakey boyfriend, the ex-boyfriend who’s a rat, and even the gay flatmate who is always up for drinks, sass and some home-truths (y’know, the #gaybestfriend). All of these are played with such dead-eyed disassociation that it is hard to pinpoint what tone Blady is going for, that is until 26 minutes into proceedings when Nekrasova bursts into pantomimic sobs and rhetorically asks “Am I a narcissist?”, (Oh. It’s satirising these people. Thanks for the heads-up) before the #gaybestfriend asks “You wanna go to a party?” and we cut to them snorting speed… like that’s still a thing!!
The inciting incident of the plot comes at 25 minutes, were Charlotte now faces a dose of reality, but it is handled with such disinterest by Charlotte and indeed Blady’s screenplay that it feels like a minor irritation. A pivotal moment which presents a much more dramatic predicament is really quite surprising, but happens so late on in the film that it isn’t given the time to explore the consequences.
It has been a while since I have reviewed films and I started watching ‘Softness Of Bodies’ with considerable excitement, hoping to be able to throw some support behind a noble effort. So it was with a heavy heart I found characters that were hard to like and not engaging enough to relish disliking, and also to find that were issues of overall quality, but I am loathe to pile on any more. If you liked the ego-centric, self-analysis of the ‘Before Trilogy’ and find art cliques interesting, I am sure that you will find much more to enjoy in ‘Softness Of Bodies’ than I did. It is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Reviewer - Ben Hassouna-Smith
on - 8/8/20
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