Tribeca ’14 Review: X/Y

Taking a rare look at the natural chemistry between two humans, X/Y directed by Ryan Piers Williams, is a conversation told in snapshots about how intimacy defies boxes people are put into and how a want for human proximity to rid oneself of loneliness can often defy logic.

I had zero pre-conceptions about X/Y before sitting down to see it this past weekend and I’m glad I went in knowing as little as possible because that simply strengthened my enjoyment of the film.

It’s a character driven drama broken in vignettes that star four different characters who interweave in each other’s lives. Set in New York the movie shows the characters grappling with managing balance-Mark, Jen, Sylvia and Jake are all in emotionally heightened moments in their lives due to rocky relationships.

We start with Sylvia and Mark when Sylvia tells him that she slept with someone else. She tells him it was because she was lonely and because Mark never wants to talk about anything which prompts him to leave their home. It’s a strong way to start off a movie because instantly we aren’t being told to demonize Sylvia’s character despite her discretion, but we see her as a young woman who shouldn’t already feel such a disconnect from her significant other.

This starts the breakup of the four storylines.  Mark is working on a screenplay and is having a hard time convincing his agent to support his vision, he’s sleeping on his best friends couch and spends the nights drinking and partying. There’s a brief moment between him a cameo spot by Amber Tamblyn that shows how tension between two characters doesn’t need to move further than just that.

It movies to Jen’s storyline played by the always fantastic Melonie Diaz (who gave of my favorite performances of last year in Fruitvale Station). She’s impulsive about everything from clothes, to men and confrontations. She’s genuine and just trying to find a person that makes her happy, unable to buy enough “stuff” to do the job. She probably has the most positive outcome with a sweet interaction promising something more.

Next is Jake who serves up my favorite character block. He’s just gotten out of a long term relationship and is still licking his wounds, unable to commit to any person that extends beyond Mark who is still staying on his couch. He surfs, he DJ’s, he models-he passes the time. I won’t spoil what happens later in his story but it’s a expertly executed moment of character chemistry that forgoes the basic constructs and allows a rare look at sexuality and the fluidity that often accompanies it.

Sadly the film ends on Sylvia’s character which after watching Jen and Jake just seems like a letdown. The film is brief in running time and the consistently moving pace is kept up until her segment which all of a sudden drags. America Ferrera is a talented actress but the character is severe. It’s okay to have characters that aren’t easy to love but we have to at least enjoy their presence which was the hard part. Still, it’s once again an offering of truth behind relationships and how not every single one needs to be defined.

The direction of the film allows the hustle and bustle view of New York without trying to romanticize it like so many directors do. It’s a place where people live and it’s the characters that inhabit the location who are the most colorful and fascinating to watch.

Not everyone will love this movie-I still can’t write exactly why I did, it just clicked-and I can’t see it getting a big name distributor but I hope a pocket full of people will see the film and feel the same. It’s something fresh, telling a familiar story in a way that makes it appear livelier.

The movie intricately explores the wanton desire we have as people to connect. Whether it’s a connection with a stranger you met in a coffee shop, a connection with a significant other that’s been missing for far too long, or a brief connection with a friend that hints at something that will never be. It’s a movie about sex without being overtly sexual. It’s a movie that allows its characters to be humans. All four of them have faults, all four are looking for something unclear but substantial, and all are frustrated and longing. They aren’t good or bad, but they’re relatable.

8/10