Living with your friends is an odd experience. You get to see their most intimate, unguarded selves. I can only imagine the horrors I have presented to those I have lived with throughout my days as a University student. I once tried to hoover up a spider whilst drunk, and once had a meal consisting of some leftover cheese and half a tub of Nutella. Depravity of such a nature is absent from Girlfriends on the grounds that it is (probably) too grotesque and disgusting an image to share with its audience. Instead, this piece from director Claudia Weill looks to cultivate the cramped life of a photographer, not quite knowing what to do with herself as her roommate and best friend announces her engagement.
It’s a great fear of mine, to think that, whilst I’m stagnating, my friends and those around me are moving to the next chapter of their lives. Melanie Mayron’s leading performance as Susan Weinblatt is relatively easy to relate to. Someone with the drive and passion needed to make it in the world, but not quite able to catch their big break. They slum their way through up and coming studios, hoping to catch the eye of a photographer nice enough to give her the space needed to put on a show. The frustration is visible, the hopelessness frequent, and all of it comes together with such incredible pacing and pessimism. Feeling guilt and bereavement for Weinblatt feels like a given, it’s hard not to root for her as she stumbles through life. A great performance from Mayron helps with this, someone able to craft an endearing, awkward character out of a rather clichéd scenario.
Our leading character is in freefall, not at all able to keep her head above water as she juggles friendships, careers, roommates and affairs all from the confines of her tiny apartment in New York. It’s beautifully set out, and manages to hit its audience in the gut with a series of events that border on plain bad luck.
GIRLFRIENDS
Having never been there myself, I find real comfort in seeing the streets of New York. After so many Woody Allen films, it was nice to have a fresh take on the city, one not glazed over with an undying love for the cluttered streets and packed crowds. Girlfriends represents a harsher, more human and realistic side to the city, one wracked with guilt and a burgeoning fire found within the heart of many of the creatives that reside there. There is no glitz or glamour, nor is there the bounding climb of optimism. Sure, there are lucky breaks, happy relationships, and good friends, but Girlfriends makes it clear that, like everything else in life, they’ll inevitably fizzle out, a dark reality takes hold instead.
Completely expected, but always appreciated, Criterion does a top job of remastering this piece. It captures the crisp, amateurish handiwork displayed in the direction and the performances, but the touch-up made to the actual quality of the picture is a noticeable improvement. Stocked up on extras, this release of Girlfriends features the ill-forgotten but fleetingly nice short film Commuters from Weill, along with a new interview with Weill, Christopher Guest, Bob Balaban, and leading lady Melanie Mayron.
Rekindling a relationship is a fleeting, troublesome idea, Girlfriends wishes to detail such a message throughout its running time. Our leading character is in freefall, not at all able to keep her head above water as she juggles friendships, careers, roommates and affairs all from the confines of her tiny apartment in New York. It’s beautifully set out, and manages to hit its audience in the gut with a series of events that border on plain bad luck. Harsh realities are frequent throughout, coaxing us to figure out our own futures as we watch this creative, but mired photographer totter her way through the streets of The Big Apple. An agonizing, engaging watch that deserves far greater attention than it has received thus far.
GIRLFRIENDS IS OUT ON CRITERION COLLECTION BLU-RAY
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