The Exploding Girl

Cinequest 2010

THE EXPLODING GIRL is a quiet, sweet film about a young girl trying to deal with a waning love-life and her own epilepsy.  However the slowness and lack of anything really happening left most of the audience cold.

Young Ivy is home on summer break and a few times we see her dealing with the idea of her epilepsy, but we rarely see her actuallyphysically dealing with it.  She also has a boyfriend who we only encounter through phone conversations such as this:

“Hey, sorry I haven’t called in awhile.”
“Oh, it’s okay.”
“So I was just checking in.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.  Well, see ya.”

Meanwhile childhood friend Al has come to crash at her house for a bit, and their friendship slowly and sweetly begins to turn into something else.  But nothing substantial really happens with this relationship and the film ends just as something might be starting.  The 79 minutes of film time could have been condensed into 15 and then continued with an actual story.  When the credits finally did roll, this audience couldn’t get out of the theater fast enough.

Now available on Netflix and DVD.