QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM TALLINN
Do not be fooled by this title: this Israel film has no apparent geopolitical connotation. The support in question concerns bras, as different females venture for distinctive lingerie to sit with their body types.
What Full Support captures is spark and wit. Cohen documents women discussing their livelihoods and their love lives. One lady pities her husband who has not seen rumpy bosoms in a number of years. “I’m a butt guy, I don’t even like breasts,” is the stock answer, which might explain why he married this person in the first place. Another subject remembers her earliest bra, which accentuated her chest appropriately.
Cohen tastefully avoids moving her camera up and down the women a la Michael Bay in his Transformers (2007) heyday, and gives every participant the space she needs to offer her truth on the subject. This is not a work of Chekhovian undertones, just as there is no symbolism to the garment. It simply exists as a point of conversation.
Perhaps the most noteworthy talking head is a trans woman, who discusses her personal journey. This journey, the audience is told, led this character to feel more comfortable in herself. “It’s my two-year anniversary,” she beams, noting that there are three more to complete. Her decision to appear onscreen semi-nude is a brave one, and could inspire other audience members to do the same when their time comes. Another cisgender lady recalls her mother’s failing health – “the hands that cooked for me”- as she dresses herself by a mirror. In a work typified by dross, these two make for a welcome distraction.
Some of the stories are heartwarming, but others are vacuous. One of the subjects is angry at her representation as “a piece of meat”, a champagne problem in a country engaged in war, whereas another says she doesn’t normally look so attentively at herself in a mirror, which begs the question why she signed up in the first place. Predictably, the setting gets stale after a period, offering nothing for the eye to immerse itself in. Glaringly, a lady in a white bra admires the cleavage for reasons that go unexplained. One woman literally points to her large breasts before noting she “doesn’t wish to overshare”. Between interviews, there are monotonous montages of clothes being hung.
The documentary says nothing about religion, identity, class politics, and barely anything interesting about gender. Instead, Full Support swings for lightweight, forgettable entertainment. Michal Cohen’s work has merit, yet there is little that can be gleaned here that couldn’t be surmised more succinctly on a brochure in Harrods.
Full Support just premiered in the brand new Doc@PÖFF Competition, at the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
