Appropriate Behavior
By Andrea Thompson
Can a film not be groundbreaking but still do something new? Take the 2014 film “Appropriate Behavior,” which follows another aimless twentysomething who finds herself completely adrift after a breakup. Such a plot couldn’t be called anything close to original, but the aimless young woman in question just happens to be Shirin, played by Desiree Akhavan, who also writes and directs.
Shirin isn’t just a bisexual woman who couldn’t even bring herself to tell her parents that she and her ex Maxine (Rebecca Henderson) were dating in the first place, said parents are also Persian immigrants, and while they’re far more liberal and open-minded than on-screen immigrant parents typically are, they also have clear expectations for Shirin. Ones that aren’t up for discussion even after they visit the apartment where their daughter and Maxine are cohabitating and note that it only has one bed.
Bisexual representation isn’t just woefully lacking, it’s also extremely misrepresented, or more often, ignored in favor of characters whose sexuality could be firmly placed in the far less complicated category of gay or straight. But Akhavan, who identifies as bisexual herself, ensures that Shirin’s journey never veers into territory that cold be called stereotypical or exploitative, which is even more impressive given that it also consists of a series of graphic sexual (mis)adventures with both men and women in a Brooklyn now firmly hipster and gentrified.
If you can get past that, “Appropriate Behavior” is a damn delight as Shirin physically and emotionally gropes for some sort of solid ground, following Maxine around in an attempt to reconnect, and teaching a class of five-year-olds how to make films, in spite of the fact that she has no experience whatsoever in filmmaking. You’d think that her unused journalism degree would practically mandate at least an interest, but there clearly are exceptions. Luckily for Shirin, the parents clearly don’t care much about their kids’ education. In an age of helicoptery overparenting, it’s actually kind of sweet.
If “Appropriate Behavior” ever does risk veering into the stereotypical, it’s ironically when exploring Shrin and Maxine’s relationship, which is delved into in a nonlinear fashion. At first it’s hard to see just what drew these two together in the first place, and why Shirin is so eager to reunite with a woman who comes off as another uptight, pretentious hipster who is so humorless that when Shirin tells her about an encounter with a guy that involved a soft dick (when they first meet no less), Maxine makes a snide remark...in the guy’s favor. If that isn’t a violation of the girl code, I don’t know what is.
Thankfully, Maxine doesn’t deteriorate into a shrew or a symbol of all the wrong choices Shirin has made in her life. She actually becomes human (eventually), and their time together quickly seems less like a waste than well spent, only to curdle in large part due to Shirin’s refusal to be honest with her parents. Or at least, completely open with them, as their denial seems clear enough.
Humanization has always been the gift that keeps on giving, so when Shirin finally starts to get it together, we actively root for her. Yeah, there’s the usual results, such as a friendlier state of coexistence with Maxine, and actually being honest with her family, some of whom are supportive, some not. One achievement though, will remain uniquely her own, as she decides to take the lead from the kids in her class and help them make a short, uplifting film about...zombie farts. Between this and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” I hope Akhavan continues to make films that are so truly, uniquely, her own.
