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The SUNY-Purchase film program must be quite the little
incubator. Earlier this year alum Ilya Chaiken’s Margarita
Happy Hour hit screens. Now here’s screenwriter Lisa
Bazadona’s Swimming, produced and directed by her
SUNY-Purchase professor, Robert Siegel. How’s that
for career guidance and nurturing? Bazadona’s tale of bored
townies working shit jobs incorporates her own experiences
as a summer tattoo artist in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Frankie Wheeler (Ambrose) spends her summer days
waiting tables at the beachfront burger shack she co-owns
with her brother, Neil (Pais), and most of her evenings
hanging around the house (also co-owned), with Neil’s wife
Maryanne (Scruggs) and her two nephews. On her occasional
outings with piercing artist and childhood pal, Nicola (Lowe),
who prides herself on being butt-wild, Frankie plays the role
of loyal sidekick. Then, someone, or rather some two, come
to town, with eyes only for Frankie, and the lifelong pals
find their regard for each other changing.
Josee (Carter) is a femme fatale making her way through
life by, as Cary Grant said to Eva Marie Saint,
“using sex like a fly swatter.” She is never without a relationship
and she is never in a relationship long. At the Wheeler’s
burger shack, Josee quickly proves herself to be possibly
the worst waitress in history, so bad that one wonders whether
she’s ever even had prior experience as a customer in a restaurant,
yet nobody fires her. Unbeknownst to the siblings, Josee’s
swatting them both with her charms. Nicola takes an instant
dislike to the newcomer, and makes rather infantile jealous
displays. Despite her faults, Josee’s assessment of Nicola’s
and Frankie’s “friendship” is right on the money. The other
newcomer is Heath (Harrold), a nomadic cutie who sells
tie-dye out of the back of his aging van, and who bonds with
Frankie while feeding his dog Wheeler’s Burgers. Heath is
as open and guileless as Josee is manipulative. Despite the
unaccustomed embarrassment of riches, Frankie doesn’t abandon
Nicola for her new admirers. It doesn’t work out, though,
because Nicola, rather badly played by the way, clearly wants
Frankie to choose.
There’s a bit more to Swimming than that, but the
more is mostly in performance and characterization. Sure enough,
Ambrose’s performance is the small gem it’s been touted as,
though it’s puzzling why she alone chose not to attempt a
Southern accent. Other than wanting a car, Frankie expresses
no clear desires throughout the summer. Despite giving her
suitors of each gender, Bazadona wrote Frankie with a refreshing
lack of angst about her sexuality. She also doesn’t express
unambiguous emotions, which is not a criticism. Her perpetual
expression of looking unsure and out of place couldn’t be
more appropriate to her way-station in life. In fact, her
only moments of unmistakable delight are when she’s behind
the wheel of Heath’s van. At times watching Swimming
feels like, “What’s going to happen next?” and at other times
it feels like, “I’ve been watching this movie for hours!”
Which actually is how it feels when you’re marking time, waiting
for your real life to start.
—Roxanne Bogucka
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