Sundance movie review: 'Stress Positions' creates anxiety, comedy

PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Stress Position, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, captures the feeling of anxiety created by too many overlapping demands. It is a comedy, but shares the main character's frustrations with the viewer.

In summer 2020, Terry (John Early) is quarantining in his soon-to-be-ex-husband's New York apartment. Terry's nephew, Bahlul (Qaher Harhash), is staying in one of the rooms, recovering from a broken leg.

Terry's neighbors, Karla (Theda Hammel), and her girlfriend, Vanessa (Amy Zimmer), and upstairs neighbor Coco often visit or gather in the courtyard.

An early scene conveys the anxiety of Terry trying to practice his COVID-19 disinfecting protocols, prepare food, talk on the phone and bang pots to celebrate the emergency workers all at the same time.

Being on speakerphone only contributes to the noise. When Terry calls Karla and Vanessa, there are even more overlapping voices.

Scenes like this escalate throughout the film as a Fourth of July cookout causes more problems with certain characters' food sensitivities. Then there's a possible COVID-19 exposure and fireworks coming through the window, among other mishaps and foibles.

Such scenes make one want to scream on Terry's behalf, "Can everyone just stop?" Whether they're blasting a boombox, lighting sparklers or just blathering incessantly to fill space, all the characters have to busy themselves.

None of them can just settle down, so Terry never can. He just wants everyone to mask up and disinfect everything brought into the house.

This behavior isn't unique to pandemic restlessness, though. There are always people in society who create new fires that someone else has to put out.

Stress Positions does calm down at times. There are moments in which characters sincerely connect during breaks from the cacophony.

Karla and Bahlul take turns narrating their sides of the story, and Bahlul gradually tells a story about an incident that happened to his mother at Terry's wedding.

Hammel, who co-wrote with Farheem Ali and directed the film herself, gave herself the most memorable part, though also potentially the most polarizing. Karla is outspoken, but fairly careless with her loved ones' feelings.

Karla pushes Terry just to make him uncomfortable. Karla and Terry go back to at least college, before Karla's transition, so they reminisce -- but Karla also knows which buttons to push. Karla similarly provokes Vanessa.

Since Hammel also wrote it, it's clear she also has empathy for Terry.

Early conveys Terry's stress in a sympathetic way, so it's never annoying that he's constantly upset. He's justified as his patience is only exploited and abused further.

Harhash provides an endearing straight entrypoint into the LGBTQ+ community of this apartment building. Zimmer also plays Vanessa as a sympathetic witness to the chaos.

Stress Positions could be triggering to viewers who share sensitivities with Terry, but it also could make those long-suffering people feel seen. The LGBTQ+, international and COVID-19 themes cast a wide net for inclusivity.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.