Appropriate Behavior

2015 "Being without a cliché to hold onto can be a lonely experience."
6.5| 1h30m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 14 March 2015 Released
Producted By: Parkville Pictures
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Shirin is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities.

Genre

Drama, Comedy, Romance

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Appropriate Behavior (2015) is now streaming with subscription on Prime Video

Director

Desiree Akhavan

Production Companies

Parkville Pictures

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Appropriate Behavior Audience Reviews

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Irishchatter I decide to watch this on Putlocker because I felt like watching a proper bisexual movie. I very much liked Desiree Akhavan as Shirin, she appears to have a very social lifestyle and she is quite upbeat. However, I would like this character to be more involved with her hobbies and interests. To me, all she ever does is drink, have sex with strangers and be at parties. That doesn't seem like a good life to have for an ordinary woman like herself. Right, we all like to go out and have fun but it's important to be distracted at the same time by doing other stuff for yourself! I wouldn't ever call this a bad film I have ever saw but I think Desiree Akhavan should've really added in more personality while she was developing her character.
runamokprods I make an effort not to know too much about a film before I see it. That helps me have an experience less tainted by expectations, but it can also lead me to silly snap judgments that are dead wrong. After a few minutes I'd decided that Desiree Akhavan's Appropriate Behavior was just another in a long string of low budget 20- something self-involved dramedies I've seen in the last couple of years. But by the end I realized that Akhavan had taken that trope, and run her own unique and very funny spin on it. And the humor was a big part of what made it special. This movie was flat out funny. It wasn't afraid of being absurd or larger than life, or actively witty. It was intensely human and touching at times, but it also had great comic timing. In that respect Ahkavan's cinematic view of life and relationships in New York has more in common with Woody Allen circa Annie Hall and Manhattan than most mumblecore we've grown used to. She also created a unusually lovable (if self-sabotaging) main character for herself in Shirin; a bi-sexual young Iranian woman still in the closet to her parents, and attempting to recover from a painful breakup. Shirin doesn't really fit in anywhere. Because she's bi, lesbians (including the woman who broke her heart) view her with suspicion, assuming she's 'just visiting' relationships with women. Her parents keep waiting for her to meet a nice boy. She feels estranged from the Iranian-American culture she grew up with, but she's not as self-consciously hip and cool as the hipster poseurs she's surrounded by. And she has a knack for making some comic but awful life decisions, from a painfully failed threesome, to a gig teaching film-making to disinterested 5 year olds. This is a rueful and smart film about how screwed up and alone we all are… and yet how sweet life is in it's sad and silly way. It's an impressive calling card for Akhavan, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she does next.Follow up -- I saw this again, sharing it with some friends, and found it only grew on me. I was even more touched by the sweet heart at the middle of the comedy.
rjones64 "Appropriate Behavior" had all the ingredients I look for in an indie movie. It had characters on the margins of society in Shirin, a bisexual young woman living in New York City and of Iranian descent. It involved locations I will never know well, the aforementioned New York City as seen by the young and tragically hip. It explores a culture of which I'm not a part, that of the young bisexual/gay/lesbian/transgender person living in a big city.Etc. etc. etc.I was all ready to enjoy the heck out of this film at the Key West Film Festival in November 2014. I even skipped another movie that my group was attending and which sounded great. All so I could see something I normally wouldn't have seen in the theaters.I wish I'd gone with my group. Even worse, I managed to talk someone out of going with me instead of with the others and so I felt bad about steering her wrong.While the set up was all there, the execution sure wasn't. The main character truly only seemed interested in her own love life and gave no thought, nor screen time to anything else. For instance, her brother the doctor seemed to have an interesting side plot going on, but the movie never seemed interested in doing more than teasing the viewers. The main character's coming out to her conservative parents was hinted about and teased, but then given all the pomp and attention of a wet noodle going down the drain.Even worse, the main character was supposed to have a lead-in-to-the-third-act epiphany that led to her making changes and sowing the seeds for a happy ending. After our showing ended, the folks in my theater all talked about the movie and none of us had any clue about what the epiphany was supposed to be. Nor could we understand why or how the main character effected the change necessary for that happy ending.So many wasted ideas, so little fleshing out done. In the end, there was not enough reason for us to care.I gave this a five because I thought the acting and cinematography were relatively professional. Too bad neither were given enough substantial plot nor complications to help them live up to their potential.
crystalmh3698 I saw this film at Frameline 38 on June 27, 2014 at 7 pm in San Francisco at the amazing Castro Theater. Writer, director and lead actress Desiree Akhavan shows us the story of Shirin who is a wonderful, loving, flawed, fragile, F**ked up human being just like the rest of us. She will not get over her ex-girlfriend, she looks for love in all the wrong places (with hilarious results) and has very limited success when trying to come out to her family who have a selective hearing problem. The Q & A after the film was wonderful and Ms. Akhavan is clearly the Queer, Persian equivalent of Sandra Bullock - funny, talented, charming, intelligent, beautiful and very comfortable with her awkwardness. Absolutely delightful - go see this film.