'Stress Positions' is a masterful and deeply uncomfortable satire

Filmmaker, musician, actor, and podcaster Theda Hammel is the harbinger of a unique alternative comedy style. The line she draws between satire and authenticity is often so blurred it can be difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. Hammel is a trans artist whose first feature film, Stress Positions (co-written with Faheem Ali), is a story of trans existence in an alternative reality early-pandemic era New York City.

Extraordinary millennial John Early (Search Party) takes on the lead role of Terry Goon, a neurotic young gay man living in his ex-husband's decrepit New York City rooming house not long after the world is overtaken by “the virus.” To make matters more complicated, Terry is also taking care of his nephew, Bahlul, a 19-year-old male model with a broken leg whom he barely knows. Hammel herself plays the scene-stealing role of Karla, Terry’s wise and morally ambiguous only friend, who, like everyone else in Terry’s life, is fascinated by the emergence of the mysterious young model.

Those unfamiliar with Hammel’s work may find the barrier to entry here a little bit difficult. The script can come across as heavy-handed or hard-boiled — like maybe a very talented high school student wrote it in a fit of unfiltered creative offloading. But the clunkiness of the dialogue is part of what makes this satire about sex, gender, and culture so masterful. There are hints of Nathan Fielder in the discomfort, a tragic and deeply hysterical irreverence that not everyone will appreciate, but those who do will find Stress Positions highly rewarding.

Once all characters are established, the film becomes a chamber piece surrounding Terry, who continues to fray at the seams until he is nothing but loose thread. This is when the script reads a little bit like an Edward Albee play. Every shared word is strained and heightened, sharpened with special meaning about existence, prejudice, and identity. Karla, and subsequently Hammel herself, is playing games and teaching lessons with Terry and the audience, not unlike Albee did with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Early in the film, we learn that Karla’s girlfriend wrote a book about their relationship, which is billed as being a “heightened” version of the truth, while Karla insists it's just all lies. This book is a totem for the film’s theme of fiction representing freedom. A character asks, “Why do I have to be this person? Why can’t I be someone else?” And it’s a beautiful thought. Gender, profession, attitude — all of this can be rewritten. While Terry Goon will likely never learn this lesson, those around him, including the audience, can leave the experience of Stress Positions with this hopeful and freeing notion in mind.

Theda Hammel’s feature film debut, Stress Positions, fuses masterful satire with authentic emotion so well that it can be difficult to watch. John Early and Hammel shine brightest on screen together, giving the film hysterical hints of Edward Albee and Nathan Fielder.

Rating: 4 Stars