Appropriate Behaviour

“I was in one of those lesbian couples with a big dog in Brooklyn,” exclaims writer / director Desiree Akhavan in the post-screening Q&A, lending confirmation to the sense of ‘playing voyeur’ one has in watching this film unfold. A sardonic musing on love, loss and the hedonistic pansexual exploits that happen in between (in this story they do), Appropriate Behaviour follows Shirin (played by Akhavan) as she negotiates first-date wine spillages, an asymmetric threesome, screaming children, underwear decimation and the expectations of her uptight Persian family with an almost pathological cynicism, rescued in the last moments by a quiet prevailing of friendship over the accumulated pains of the heart. Funny, and affirming. Addendum: Viewers are emplored neither to make sweeping comparisons to Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’ nor to use the word ‘quirky’, or any other reductive synopsis, lightly. Lesbians with big dogs everywhere may reserve the right to correct you.

Duke Of York’s Picturehouse, 28 February 2015

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