Frances Ferguson

In a departure from my normal practice of focusing on TV shows, I watched this short movie on Amazon over the last couple of nights. It's an ultra-deadpan tale of a young woman in a Nebraska town in a soul-deadening marriage who has an affair with a student in a high-school class where she's a substitute teacher. That said, don't expect much sex. All we see is her masturbating in her car fully clothed, and even there we don't actually see her hand doing any work.

Indeed, the movie is very much an exercise in what it doesn't show, in not showing things. Which makes sense, since a quick search reveals that it had a budget of only $500k, which makes it something of a miracle that it has voiceover from Nick Offerman of Parks and Rec. Or, rather, instead of a miracle it's a reminder that lots of actors are artists first and foremost who love participating in projects they like.

The movie is billed as a comedy but I didn't laugh a whole lot. And yet... it was pretty memorable and clever in many ways, for instance in how it thematized the titular character's good looks. Part of me wondered if I would have kept on watching if the lead actress had not been an attractive blue-eyed blonde, albeit in a very conventional way. The film plays with and dances around this topic. Early in the film an older guy in a store says to Frances: "You're very attractive," to which she responds "You say that as if it's a good thing." Later, in support group, another pretty blonde says to her "You're not that hot," to which Frances responds "Thank you." All of this she does with an absolute minimum of affect, save for a more or less permanent application of so-called resting bitch face (Google it).

In short, in only an hour and 15 minutes or so, Frances Ferguson is able to get a fair amount done. Not a waste of time. And the ending offers hope. I am inclined to check out other stuff from its director, Bob Byington, especially now that I see that an earlier film with high ratings -- Harmony and Me -- stars my brother-in-law Kevin Corrigan.