Indy Film Fest: Signature Move
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Who’s up for an adorably quirky cross-cultural lesbian romance comedy? I certainly was, thoroughly enjoying the main character and her journey in “Signature Move,” about a Pakistani-American attorney who discovers love and lucha libre wrestling while negotiating a strained relationship with her mother.
Star Fawzia Mirza also co-wrote the screenplay with Lisa Donato, centering on Zaynab, a 30-ish woman living in Chicago with her immigrant mother, Parveen (Shabana Azmi). By day Zaynab works in her nook of an office in the middle of a thriving multicultural neighborhood, mostly helping recent transplants with immigration snafus.
By night, she essentially works as her mother’s servant, cooking her meals and playing the good daughter. All Parveen seems to do is sit in her chair, worrying her necklace beads, watching trashy Pakistani soap operas and using binoculars to spy on passers-by, hoping one of the men will be a suitable suitor for her daughter’s hand.
Zaynab is gay and out, except to her mother. As she explains at one point, mothers and daughters aren’t friends in their culture. She feels constrained by the expectations of their homeland — which is that daughters care for their parents until they marry.
Mirza is just a revelation in this role — painfully awkward, gloriously dorky and lovably inept at romance. When she bumps into Alma (Sari Sanchez), a Mexican-American book store owner and self-avowed party girl, it seems at first like the tiger swallowing its prey.
But oddly enough, the women keep seeing each other and their one-night stand turns into a fling that turns into something deeper.
One of her clients, Jayde (Audrey Francis), can’t afford to pay in cash, so they strike a bargain for wrestling lessons instead. The pixie-ish Zaynab isn’t much of a threat in the ring, but she shows plenty of spunk and starts to come out of her shell. Between the mat work and the brewing romance with Alma, she spends less and less time with her mother, which causes more strain.
Director Jennifer Reeder keeps things moving at a brisk and light pace, occasionally slowing things down for a contemplative moment or two. We get to see more of Parveen beyond the stereotypical stern maternal figure, as she looks back on her past and mourns for her long-lost husband.
“Signature Move” is a smart, well-acted romantic comedy that’s a confident blend of somethings old and new.