Glitter's Wild Women
2019 · 13m · Canada
Directed by Roney
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, fantasy
Tones: absurdist, humorous, surreal
Two sisters living in isolation on their farmland, harvest and smoke bioluminescent glitter that gives them super strength. A comedy.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Two sisters farming magic glitter in the Ontario nowhere to get jacked—it's the kind of premise that makes you laugh before you even hit play, and Roney commits to the absurdity without winking at the camera like some smug indie would. This is the stuff everyone else passes on because it's too weird to explain at a cocktail party, which is exactly why it works.
Roney's anarchic sensibility here resists easy lineage, though there's a formal control underneath the surrealism—the editing rhythms and tonal shifts suggest a filmmaker aware of how to structure chaos without letting it collapse into mere noise. It's more unruly than the festival circuit typically rewards, which limits its reach despite the disciplined hand at work.
The choice to play the bioluminescent glitter as completely matter-of-fact—no explanation, no apology, just two sisters going about their day with this impossible resource—is what makes the whole film *sing*. That deadpan acceptance of the surreal premise in every frame is the decision that transforms a high-concept joke into something genuinely strange and alive.
Reviews
One fine debut. Roney displays an assured hand behind the camera and elicits fine performances from her two leads.
An anarchic, fantastically quirky treat — a darkly funny, very strange depiction of sisterhood.
Festivals
- Toronto International Film Festival 2018
- Vancouver International Film Festival 2018
- Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2018
- Bloody Mary Film Festival 2018
- Kingston Canadian Film Festival 2018
- Mecal - Barcelona International Short and Animation Film Festival 2019
- Toronto Outdoor Picture Show 2019
- Arrow Video FrightFest 2019