Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf centres on the just-40 Anna (Anna Margarita Albelo), a broke, perpetually single filmmaker living in a friend’s garage. To get by for cash she dances in a plush vagina costume and screens her twenty-year-old short films in art galleries.
After failing every attempt to receive a grant she bumps into the beautiful Katia (Janina Gavankar). Anna is suddenly inspired to create an independent, feature-length film with the main purpose of being able to spend more time with Katia.
Armed with her best friends, Penelope (Guinevere Turner) and Chloe (Carrie Preston of True Blood fame), as co-actors, Anna takes on the intense work of film production. Amongst the crew comes the stunning blonde cameraperson Julia (Agnes Olech) who falls for Anna but struggles to be noticed while Anna pursues Katia.
Improvisation takes over the film script and past demons break out during the acting, leaving the film in tatters and testing the new and experienced relationships in Anna’s life.
Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf is a clever and heart-felt movie. The sly, dry comedy shines throughout the movie with a lot of subtle acts and comments breaking the tension and bumping the film along. A variety of filming techniques are craftily used to separate certain moments in the film and add extra dimensions. This features particularly the collage motion used to present the back stories; the behind-the-scenes footage shown throughout the movie; and the old-fashioned black and white used to show what is happening in Anna’s film.
The costume work of the film is especially creative and impressive with a lot of thought for the smaller details, from Anna’s constantly colourful scarves through to the bling added to the vagina costume.
A few seemingly surreal moments in the movie, such as the day-dreaming, do feel a little too much for breakaway sections of the film considering a lot of similar moments are played out in the main plot. These tend to be short however, and do not distract completely from the centre narrative.
Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf is a fun and thought provoking film featuring with a few quirky moments making it an overall pleasant watch.
Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf will screen at 6pm on Saturday 28 June 2014. Tickets are available from the Feast office, through FeastTix online or phone 8463 0684, or at the door if not sold out.
Reviewed by Alex Dunkin
Twitter: @AlexDunkin
Rating out of 10: 6.5
The Feast Film Festival runs 27 June to 6 July 2014 at the Mercury Cinema.
More News
