Notes on: Show Me What You Got (Cvetko, 2019)

 

I'm sure everyone and their dog has written about the fact that this is a movie about three people who love each other without judgement. That's definitely true, and there aren't a lot of examples of that. I could also go on about how I think the film makes a number of creative decisions that I don't necessarily agree with, or how it gets tropes and audiovisual elements from a certain genre of film (*cough*frenchnewwave*cough*) and reapplies it for this new story, or how the characters don't really have a lot to do except mope around or gallivant around the world until a major conflict in the third act. Or how the ending feels melodramatic and out of left field. The film is obviously flawed.

But instead, I'd like to talk about something else that I think the film is trying to say. Show Me What You Got is a film about displacement, a story that means a lot personally to its director, herself an immigrant: literally a person displaced from their homeland. It is a displacement not only of space; the entire film is also a recollection, a story that exists in the past and told in the present, a displacement of time. All the three protagonists are themselves displaced in a way. Nassim is the most obvious example, working as a fight trainer in the US, away from his family in Iran; Marcello's displacement is voluntary, having escaped his homeland to escape his responsibilities as well. Christine's displacement is physical and emotional: after the death of her grandfather, she is homeless and without an anchor. In one of the film's pre-pandemic moments, there are scenes of a pro-immigrant protest in the Trump Era, and in what is perhaps the one scene that stands out the most, the trio formalizes their relationship in a boat in a desert, itself a visual metaphor of displacement, of things not being where they should be.

And that gets to the heart of what I think the film is trying to say: in a state of displacement, one finds comfort in others, especially others who are undergoing the same thing. There is solidarity in that. And even if one is displaced, when you are with the ones you love, you are exactly where you need to be.

This review was originally posted on letterboxd: https://boxd.it/22AJY7

The film is available streaming on Upstream.ph, among other sources