In She’s Lost Control, writer and director Anja Marquardt’s feature film debut, she tackles the taboo of therapy by way of sexual intimacy. Where 2012’s The Sessions showed the surrogate experience as one of uplifting redemption, Control chooses to show a dark, chilly take.
Our film’s surrogate is Ronah (Brooke Bloom), self-assured and making her way in living in New York as a type of therapist, who works with patients with intimacy issues by physically involving her clients, including Johnny (Marc Menchaca), whose sessions push Ronah to her breaking point. The film taps into the dark mood and manifestations of these patient’s darker sides, ultimately making for a film that’s cold, locked down, lifeless in its composition and catharsis. Viewers expecting to see a more salacious take in its portrayal of sexual healing will be disappointed with this bleak mood-piece. The fact that it’s all so despondent and out of reach only distances the experience from the viewer.
It’s a slow burn of our psychological need for connection, and how those things can unravel when they’re out of our control.
2011’s Steve McQueen-made Shame also confronted American sex head on, showing the all-out unravel of one man’s addiction can show. Where we’ve seen sex further mainstreamed in this year’s erotica blockbuster 50 Shades of Grey, there’s no shortage of viewpoints that filmmakers are exploring when talking about sex. Here, Marquardt’s take on it is one that is unfulfilled, where emotional isolation consumes these people to stop them from the physical act itself.
The best part of She’s Lost Control are in its careful constructions and observations of people, how our best intentions can succumb to larger, more natural and out-of-our-hands events that can doom us entirely. The harder parts to sit through are in the denial of offering more connecting pieces to the audience, making for a closed-off experience. It’s a slow burn of our psychological need for connection, and how those things can unravel when they’re out of our control.
She’s Lost Control opens today in limited release.
