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
Democracy Under Siege
As the USA turns 250, Oscar-nominated director Laura Nix considers the roots of the current political crisis with commentary from historian Heather Cox Richardson, progressive politician Jamie Raskin, and cartoonist Ann Telnaes, among others.
Malcolm X
In an indelible role, Denzel Washington give us a layered, compassionate, conflicted man who finds the strength in Islam to transcend his demons and confront the inequity and racism in America head-on. Along with Do the Right Thing, this is Spike Lee's greatest film.
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man
A chart topping pop star as one half of Peter and Gordon, Peter Asher was brother to Jane, brother in law to Paul McCartney, ran the Beatles' Apple, produced and managed James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, and 10,000 Maniacs, to name just a few. He did it all.
Unforgiven
Bill Munny (Clint Eastwood) is face down in pig shit when we first see him. He's a bad farmer, but has a natural facility for killing people – a vocation to which he returns in a quest that combines both profit and justice. Or so he chooses to believe.
Romería
An orphan from a young age, 18-year-old Marina intends to pursue a university scholarship. The application, however, requires the signatures of her paternal grandparents, compelling her to embark on a pilgrimage and seek out the family she has never met.