Stay at Home Movie
2020 · 10m · USA
Directed by Sasha Lebedeva
Genres: essay film, experimental
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, whimsical
A Russian woman marooned in L.A. lockdown turns her boredom into a homemade fashion video-diary, narrating her own restlessness while modeling outfits for no one. It's a pandemic artifact that refuses to be miserable about itself.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Most pandemic films were either sob stories or worse — Zoom dramas. This one had the gall to be light, vain, and visually pleasing. That's a rebellion I can get behind.
A pandemic artifact that refuses to be miserable about itself — treating quarantine as a runway show with an audience of one — is a smart tonal move when most lockdown shorts went dirge. Akerman by way of Petra Collins is fair.
Lockdown-as-runway-show with an audience of one — Lebedeva writing/shooting/editing/color-grading/starring is the right single-author commitment for a self-portrait of restlessness. Lightness as the actual radical choice in 2020.
Reviews
A film made during quarantine being released during quarantine finds success in staying light, focusing on the quirky and visually pleasing.