A young girl defends a master's degree in psychology, in parallel begins practice under the strict guidance of her superiors. Psychology is the most modern, not excluding bodily contact between doctor and patient. This is done to overcome sexual complexes. In general, this is the task of therapy - to solve the patient's problems with sex. The girl gets a particularly troubled patient. He seems to be getting better, but it turns out to be just an appearance.
Whether the filmmakers wanted it or not, many will surely read it not as an ode to the difficulties of the newfangled profession of a “sexual therapist”, but as a gravestone speech of this very profession. Indeed, this service itself, allegedly helping to get rid of complexes, and the market that has developed around it, look completely artificial. Such problems may be serious, but the belief in healing through a series of sessions with the person you see for the first time is regrettable. In general, this film is not even quite artistic. The image of the main heroine-psychotherapist as a whole is written out convincingly, but in the center is not so much her as the phenomenon of her profession. Special attention is paid to money. At the very beginning of the session, before the transfer of money, the girl is emphatically tactful, after the transfer - blooms with a smile and begins to "work." For her, this is precisely the work associated with self-realization. So in a sense, her example allows you to combine in one context the concept of helping the sick and personal career, which leads to a moral dilemma.
But the heroine is unsuccessful. Her patient is not only not cured, but also becomes aggressive. That leads to collapse. It is not clear what the director wants to say. Either he wants to reveal the artificiality and ineffectiveness of such therapy, or, refusing criticism, simply pity his heroine.
A long time ago, movies about sexuality were a revelation. "Losing control" just shows the monstrous everyday life of sex. All the secrets are gone. Previously, wealthy families had family doctors, now residents of the metropolis have personal sexual doctors. Their problems are discussed by ready-made algorithms. However, American psychology is already emasculated into pure mathematics. How to help a person with real problems is not very clear. Meanwhile, the heroine seriously counts on his master's degree, plans to open a private practice, buy housing. Only an out-of-control patient forced her to change her plans. In the end, Losing Control is a film with a false relevance. Sex isn’t the biggest problem in life, especially when it’s a job. Hunger and unemployment are more important.
In the debut film “She’s Lost Control”, awarded in Berlin with a golden bear, the authors raise an important and interesting topic. There is no doubt that this is a cinematic study.
A young girl from Canada, who lives in a cramped apartment in New York and is passionate about social psychology, participates in a serious experiment.
The young lady slowly writes a scientific work and voluntarily becomes a guinea pig in the hands of her supervisor. The professor, in turn, gives her the most difficult of his clients - those who for one reason or another can not emancipate in the presence of persons of the opposite sex. One is catastrophically insecure and considers himself a complete loser, the other suffers from skin diseases and can not remove the shirt, the third is a gloomy intensive care worker, can neither look into the eyes nor even touch the hair of a woman.
All three pay Rona, our protagonist, to help them overcome themselves and break the chains of the psychological clamps.
The author of the film also puts his merciless experiment: will the “sex therapist” be able to liberate his clients and at the same time remain in his rut? Along the way, many questions arise. Does “nothing personal” work in this sensitive area? Is it science, or is it sophisticated “intellectual prostitution” for particular perverts? You will probably know the answer by watching the movie. If you don’t get bored in the middle.
I personally divided it into two episodes and watched it in the evening and in the morning the next day.
The viewer is made to understand from the first minutes: the therapist herself, unfortunately, is an empty, lost person, and painfully lonely. She is also a workaholic, except for work in life. It can literally hurt anyone. Even in appearance, the rustic neighbor feels all her weaknesses and will not use this despicable use.
I really liked the intellectual aspect of Losing Control. I can't say the same thing about art. Unfortunately, the festival cinema in recent years increasingly goes along the path of analysis of radical social and psychological topics. Aesthetics at the same time often go to the fore. Personally, I am not very pleased with this trend. I want a beautiful and elegant cinema – a real contemporary cinema of today. But it's the way it is. That is why I can safely recommend this film only to real fans of fest-cinema.
I found it unbanal and interesting experiment of the filmmakers. But I was waiting for a movie, not a lab experience. So, with all the undoubted advantages, the review today will be on a red background.
The film tells about the harsh everyday life of a sex therapist named Rona. Unlike traditional psychotherapy, it is not about sitting against each other and talking about the problems of the customer for an hour. If this is a conversation, then a short one - only during the preparation of the bed. This is not the usual body-oriented therapy, which with the help of technical techniques relieves inhibition and activates the client's motor skills. In the form in which it is presented here debuting in the movie Anya Marquardt - these are sessions that end in penetrations. Well, not necessarily on the first day, but on the next - almost certainly.
Rhona is a future master in behavioral psychology, advanced in her profession, but, as it often happens, is actually a lonely woman, spending inconspicuous evenings at the computer. A typical shoemaker without boots, unable to build close relationships, but teaching others. The most common type of psychologist. That’s why Rhona is a hardworking workaholic who doesn’t give up any of the difficult clients that her supervisor colleague leaks to her. And he throws her any illiquid, the problems of which he can not solve the traditional method, that is, without sex.
The industry of such services is not developed in Russia. Judging by this film, the states legalized the need for clients to get closer to therapists at the most forbidden level - intimate. In between sessions, Ron barely has time to familiarize himself with the case of the future “partner”, stretch out, wash and have a quick snack. At the same time, Rona is not a whore, as it may seem at first glance. It works not only with the pelvis, but also with the head, in any case, it does not go to bed until it does a couple of breathing or other exercises with the client. Most of the film is occupied by her sessions with Johnny - a red misanthrope with an eternally sour-milk face.
Anya Marquardt gathered actors who earned a living as a serial showgirl. Not very smart, but at the same time convincing in their roles. Brooke Bloom, who plays Ron, very accurately conveys the duality of the image, where the professional outfit barely covers up the concern of her personal unhappiness. In addition, Rona has that sacrificial face type and eye expression, which certainly attract to themselves different degrees of misogynists. And this unconscious willingness to become a victim is easily read by some clients who cross the line and turn the therapist into the object of their aggression.
Sex is known to bring together, even therapeutic. At least 15-20 centimeters. This is not sexual satisfaction or entertainment. This is a serious medical connection, fixed by signatures in the contract and accompanied by rapid tests so as not to become infected. And all this is only in order to reduce the level of anxiety of the client and create a safe space suitable for this intercourse, and for subsequent ones - after treatment. The film offers a simple conclusion to the horror: in this situation, clients become attached to the therapist, sucking like children to the tit. And all their bindings are fraught with loss of control.
Each person seeks attention from his fellows, but is not always able to get it – loneliness, which is our main fear, often overtakes us very early and accompanies a lifetime. Of course, there are people who are trying to invent an escape from loneliness. This happened in Japan, when robots were created to care for seriously ill people, which also had the ability to simulate human touch, allowing patients to feel less lonely and happier. The director of several short films Anya Marquardt learned about such robots from one article and became interested in the phenomenon. She soon discovered that there were not only machines ready to give human touch to those who could not otherwise get it, but also real flesh-and-blood people who touched others for money, thereby helping to overcome the fear of intimacy and learn how to build romantic and intimate relationships, in other words, also trying to save from loneliness. The discovery struck the director, and so the idea was born for her first feature film, Losing Control, about a girl who works as a sex surrogate in New York City and faces one of the hardest cases in her practice that will force her to cross all possible boundaries.
Losing Control is the evil twin brother of the 2012 film Surrogate, which also chronicles the relationship of a woman working as a sex surrogate and one of her patients. The origins of the sexual problems of the hero of the film Ben Levin are not sinister at all - "Surrogate" tells about a man who is almost all his life on artificial ventilation and has to put up with many restrictions. The main male character of the film Losing Control is much darker and more mysterious character - this man is not imposed any physical restrictions, he is able to adequately lead a social and working life, but finds it difficult to build a romantic relationship, because he feels much more comfortable having one-time sex without any attachment. Like the main female character of the film, we gradually get acquainted with this man and from a complete distrust of the woman who is designed to teach him intimacy, and the viewer watching their bizarre therapy, he moves to a minimal, but still the ability to open up and with each new episode we gradually begin to understand where all his problems in intimate relationships come from. In an interview, Anya Marquardt said that every strangeness has serious emotional problems, and that if a person does not feel comfortable taking off his shirt, it is not that he is ashamed of his body. Most likely, some events in his life were reflected in this seemingly inexplicable quirk, the root of which can be found if you try well. The same goes for the male protagonist of Losing Control, whose fears and clumsiness are ultimately explained by a very specific element of his life.
But Ani Marquardt’s film is not only about this man, because in parallel with him, the one that should help him gain control loses control. We see the life of the main female heroine slowly but surely falling apart in parts. A small leak in the bathroom turns into a big lawsuit, big plans for the future become small impossible dreams, and a mysterious client becomes too close. Behind this intimacy lies a darkness from which one can only escape by regaining control. Ani Marquadt’s debut feature film is a dark tango performed by two people united by an inexplicable and meaningless relationship ranging from smiles to violence. “Losing Control” certainly won’t touch you the way Ben Levine’s “Surrogate” did, but it might appeal to dark matter lovers, suffocating attachments, destructive drives and anti-love stories.
