The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

Joanna Arnow's off-putting yet oddly compelling portrait of a woman drifting through life, from BDSM relationships to a stultifying corporate job to her bothersome family.

Earlier this week I reviewed a movie I thought was indulging in weirdness for weirdness’ sake, and figured I’d had my fill for the week. Then I remembered I was supposed to screen another very off-kilter film, “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed.”

It kind of got lost in the shuffle, and when I saw it’s only playing in a single theater in my area, Living Room Theaters Indy, I had mentally set it aside as one I’ll just have to miss. But then some unexpected time dropped into my lap, I started watching it and, against my expectations, was oddly compelled by it.

It’s a portrait told in vignettes of Ann, a youngish woman living in New York City played by Joanna Arnow. Ann is lonely and ostracized — at her soulless corporate job and by her bothersome Jewish family, with two elderly parents, played by Barbara Weiserbs and David Arnow (I’m guessing a relative).

She shifts through life seemingly without any passion or purpose, all of her speech coming out in flat, unmodulated tones. She is not attractive by conventional societal standards and makes little attempt to conform to them.

Ann’s most notable attribute for the purposes of filmmaking is that she is into BDSM, specifically as a submissive. She has a longtime relationship, if you can call it that, with Allen (Scott Cohen), a dominant or master, who’s much older and wealthier. He treats her with what most people would consider cruel indifference, even so far as making no attempt to satisfy her own sexual needs.

She is his virtual slave, but willingly so. Ann gets her fulfillment from serving Allen’s whims, such as ordering her to run about the room nude, standing against the wall like a prisoner and then hurrying back to service him.

Arnow also wrote and directed the movie, I’m sure because she wanted to tell this story but also because it would be challenging to ask another actress to do the things she does onscreen. She is fully and frankly nude for large stretches of the movie, without any coy positioning or lighting. This is intentional, and after a time her body ceases being shocking, as we understand Ann holds no shame in being naked.

There are also a number degrading things Ann does, with Allen and with other masters she comes into contact with. One, Elliot (Parish Bradley), makes her dress up in a pig outfit and masturbate in public. Another fellow, Thomas (Peter Vack), is far gentler but doesn’t hang around very long.

Eventually Ann herself seems to tire of it, or at least the stubbornly casual nature of the hook-ups, and decides to try dating for real. After a few humorous misfires, she eventually hooks up with Chris (Babak Tafti), an exceedingly normal guy who seems to genuinely like her for who she is rather than what she can do for him.

Not surprisingly, her kinky inclinations eventually creep back into the scene as she tries to get Chris to order her around a bit. He’s so hilariously inept at it, it’s endearing.

The dry, pitch-black humor of the film is its best, and sneakiest quality.

I admit the whole BDSM thing is entirely mysterious to me. I can’t understand why anyone would take pleasure in being hurt or humiliated. I can’t fathom a mind that would enjoy hurting and humiliating others — especially in the most intimate settings.

Despite this, I weirdly found myself getting more and more engrossed in Ann’s journey. The story is told episodically, lingering here and there for a bit and then short scenes and events marking the passing of months or even years.

A merger at her company results in some unwelcome changes, but Ann seems to roll with it and even move up the ladder. Things don’t much improve with her parents, though, who demand more time with their daughter just so they can nitpick her — even the way she says “I love you.” Her older sister (Alysia Reiner) comes to stay with her awhile during a dust-up in her own marriage, and it’s clear they might as well exist on different continents, let alone within the same family.

“The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed” is indeed a strange movie, but I think that strangeness exists internally rather than a feeling it’s trying to invoke in the audience. Joanna Arnow is nothing if not brave in making this, a film about a person who seems to repel everyone around her, and feeds off that repulsion.

It is, in its way, a beautiful movie about ugly things.