Below Her Mouth (2016)

Sometimes when people meet, there is an instant attraction and passion which can be extraordinarily enjoyable, all encompassing, consuming. It can block out the world for a while, fill in the empty spaces, and make us do things, say things, we might not otherwise. It can be exhilarating. Eventually it changes to something else, a base for something more substantial, or a spectacular flame out which leaves us either bitter, or ready for the next hit.

Below Her Mouth captures that feeling rather well but lacks the ability to build into its finale. It starts weak, builds to something potentially interesting, and then falls flat, feeling a bit dishonest, rushed.

The first act leaves a bit of a bad taste in ones mouth. The film starts off with a stalker vibe. It's the kind of make cute meeting where one person says "no" which is ignored by the pursuer until the pursued gives in and sees what she has been missing all along. That has played for years in heterosexual romances but we're getting to the point where we know it's not cute, in fact it is sort of gross. It's no less gross when it is a lesbian pursuing another woman. The "no" not being taken for an answer is creepy. The film doesn't get off to a good start.

But I was won over through the second act as the women fell head over heals for each other. Not due to the explicit sex, although film maker April Mullen has a good eye for filming passion, not just making the sex "watchable" but making it feel authentic. Authentic sex in movies is often a hard thing to come by (no pun intended... oh who am I kidding) and I felt Below Her Mouth did a decent job of making me believe in the heat of passion I was witnessing. What won me over was the film's obsessing over its subjects. Just like we often do when we are falling for someone we just met. Reason and rationality don't play a major part. Instead we just become obsessed with small details (often ignoring bigger details), saying stupid sounding things (which sound so good at the time), and lose ourselves in the moment we know can't last. A less generous person would say the film was shallow but I felt it was capturing that feeling and I could see the trajectory and where it was taking me.

But the third act lost me again. The lead up doesn't create a passion which can inspire the end. It's flash in the pan excitement but the film asks us to buy a deeper connection it never shows us. The climax lost its authenticity. It was too shallow, too lost in its own passion, to make me believe in the happily ever after it was shooting for. Its rushed, clumsy denouement felt tacked on, felt fake.

There is also a striking amount of biphobia throughout the film which often, in subtle ways, discredits Jasmine's life and feelings outside of her passion for Dallas.  This, paired with Dallas' aggressive behavior in the beginning, gives a distaste to the way the film wraps up. If the film had moved in a different direction in the third act, perhaps...

 The film starts out with the lines:

"Did you cum?"

"A little."

That's how the movie feels at the end.

Below Her Mouth
Starring: Natalie Krill, Erika Linder
Director: April Mullen
Writer: Stephanie Fabrizi