Support The Girls by Andrew Bujalski

Ania D. Brett — 2019-06-27T13:20:16Z

COMING OUT TOMORROW Excellent statement on the dynamic of precarious work and the women taking it on - SUPPORT THE GIRLS by Andrew Bujalski

SUPPORT THE GIRLS follows Lisa (Regina Hall), the general manager at Double Whammies, a highway-side ‘sports bar with curves', who has her normally unstoppable optimism and faith – in her girls, her customers, and herself – tested over the course of a long, strange day.

Double Whammies, a low-budget Hooters, is a typical sports bar and “brestaurant” facing competition from strip bars (should they ever decide to install TVs), casual dining restaurants with TVs in the bars, and the actual Hooters (in this universe, named Mancave). Of course it doesn't look like that in the day-to-day. For manager and mother hen, Lisa, on her last day, she only sees problems with staff, customers and life. There is also the problem of the job itself—as the restaurant manager shares the precarious employment situation and income bracket with the front- and back-of-house staff, and shares the responsibilities of the restaurant owner, but none of the real power.

Support the Girls does not centre on workers' personal dramas, like Waitress (2007) or Clerks II (2006)—essentially soap operas with poor people—but is a statement on this dynamic. In the world of 2019 the bottom rungs of the restaurant industry are not entry-level, summer, or student jobs; it's how working people support their working families. As such, Double Whammies is simply an expression of social and economic stratification, with working-class problems like lack of child care, lack of options and lack of wealth expressed as bringing your child to work and stealing. Both Lisa and owner Cubby ask waitress Danyelle if she likes working at DW and both misunderstand her “yes” response. Danyelle likes that Lisa actually cares about the staff, and, when Cubby asks her, she clearly means she likes earning money to live.

Writer and director Andrew Bujalski understands that, in the service environment, it is the colleagues that keep you there since, ultimately, your only option is to waitress, cook, or sell elsewhere, which could be an even worse situation. Think less girl power and more surviving sexism. Thus, the film has no theme or plot, which is why there is no ending. The nature of the new working-class life, and old/ongoing Black life, is characterised by uncertainty, so the girls are doing what they can with what they have—hoping for more but are unlikely to get it.

RELEASED IN UK CINEMAS ON 28 JUNE 2019

Searching Eva by Pia Hellenthal - Fragments 2019

Ania D. Brett, Coco Green — 2019-06-10T18:55:48Z

Searching Eva does not use titular character, Eva Collé, as a metaphor for Generation Z taken for granted intersectionality and ‘always on' social media. Eva's identity laundry list and reluctance to ‘be' a gender, culture or nationality is simply context. Its probe into her life through social media posts and vignettes is simply the setup. The true offering of this documentary is its reflection on perception and presentation. In the age of social media, whose domination isn't limited to just one generation, what does this mean for our fragmented selves and how do we project our resulting fears and anxieties on to others?

Today we ‘connect' with people, often instead of or prior to meeting, and Pia Hellenthal introduces the audience to Eva in a similar fashion. The opening scene begins with her followers responding to the first of several provocative blog posts. We then see her IRL and, within the first five minutes, we are shown a lover, friends, and beind-the-scenes modelling—as if we, too, are followers. Hellenthal uses vignettes to tell the stories behind the posts, and the natural dialogue helps us to feel an intimacy with the subject as we take this voyeuristic tour. However, it is up to us to provide the meaning.

As Eva performs, hangs out with friends, and visits family, we see that she puts serious work into how she's seen. Her hair, mannerisms, and posture rely on the demands of the situation. In one telling scene, the normally uninhibited Eva plays with her younger brother whilst he's sitting on her lap. She's seemingly at peace blending into the background and nurturing her young charge in that moment. The general malaise of her posts are nearly forgotten; and there is almost no trace of the coquettish sex worker posing for pictures.

However, these scenes are not shown to be contradictory representations nor to disrupt our notions about who Eva, a drifting, cosmopolitan, feminist, drug addict, is. Instead this is a way to bring in the audience as a central piece of the story. We are invited to understand her logic of forgetting the past and creating the present to form your own path. Eva rejects cultural identities or telling stories in narrative form, as this creates a past and, in some ways, relives it. Instead, she is in a state of constantly recreating the story. Moment to moment. Blogging is an ideal expression for this kind of self, but for those of us who feel we're part of communities and in relationships, this can feel unnerving and leave us searching for Eva's purpose, to find out what happens next, and trying to understand what made her this way (as many of her commentators do).

Yet, this film provides an alternative to experience a lifestyle that can only be expressed through clips and monologues, and to move beyond social media celebrity caricatures.

Searching Eva will be screening as part of the Fragments Festival at Genesis Cinema on Tuesday 11 June at 9 pm.
Find out more about the film here.

myDylarama

Support The Girls by Andrew Bujalski

Searching Eva by Pia Hellenthal - Fragments 2019