While coping with the usual workaday demands of life in New York City, Ann (Joanna Arnow), a thirty-something Jewish woman with a taste for BDSM sex, struggles to maintain a series of casual relationships with various “masters.” When one of her long-term partners suddenly ends things, however, she is forced to reflect on what she really wants out of life. The question is whether she can figure this out before it’s too late. One of the year’s most distinctive and accomplished debut features, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed showcases Arnow, who also wrote and directed the film, in a fearless and uninhibited lead performance as Ann. Witty, wry, and sexually frank, the film also demonstrates Arnow’s remarkable directorial control, featuring precise, static compositions that draw out physical humour in most every scene. Shot on a shoestring budget, this perceptive, off-kilter comedy finds endless amusement in the uncomfortable, even absurd ways that our bodies move through the world.
Audaciously raw, revealing, and excruciatingly funny.
RogerEbert.com
Joanna Arnow, Scott Cohen, Babak Tafti
USA
2023
Panorama
English
Strong Sexual Content
At International Village
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Sean Baker, Adam Mirels, Roberts Mirels.
Producer
Graham Swon, Pierce Varous
Screenwriter
Joanna Arnow
Cinematography
Barton Cortright
Editor
Joanna Arnow
Production Design
Grace Sloan
Original Music
Robinson Senpauroca
Director
Joanna Arnow
Joanna Arnow is a filmmaker, actor and writer based in Brooklyn. She wrote and directed Bad at Dancing, a narrative short that was awarded the Berlinale Silver Bear Jury Prize and is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel paired with Jules and Jim. Joanna’s most recent short Laying Out premiered at New York Film Festival and was selected as a festival highlight in The New Yorker. In addition to making films, Joanna works as an actor and writer. As an actor, she has appeared in Aaron Schimberg’s Chained for Life, Zach Fleming’s Staycation, Todd Verow’s Fucked in the Head, Kati Skelton’s Wet Shapes, and more. Joanna also writes fiction and draws comics. Her pieces have been published in Glimmer Train Press, Popula, Monkeybicycle, Crack the Spine, Nanoism and Dogzplot.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
A Sad and Beautiful World
This Lebanese love story chronicles the romance between a level-headed businesswoman and a romantic restauranteur across several decades in wartorn Beirut. It's funny, charming, melancholy and you'll feel it all.
One Last Love Letter
In 2024, Nazuna writes to the young man she secretly loved as a teenager. Her letter reaches his grieving father, revealing memories of Shinsuke, an aspiring boxer killed in the 2000 Naka-Meguro train disaster, and opening a tender exchange.
American Doctor
One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.
Samurai Vengeance
In Edo-era Japan, a young kabuki actor’s celebrated revenge becomes legend. When a provincial samurai investigates the truth behind the vendetta, conflicting testimonies expose hidden motives and buried secrets in this atmospheric jidaigeki mystery about rumor, performance, and myth.
How to Divorce During the War
Screenwriter Vytus is left reeling when on successive days his wife demands a divorce and Russia invades Ukraine. Blazevicius' masterful feature emerges as an engrossing satire about virtue signaling, nationalism, good intentions, and survival modes.
Kindergarten
In this charming Quebecois documentary, we are invited to look closely at the interactions of children between the ages of 1 and 5, a period in which they are just beginning to learn about social interactions. And yet how much they resemble ourselves!