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When watching The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed, the brilliant comedy from writer-director Joanna Arnow in which she also stars, both comedy and tragedy are expertly wielded in her hands. Not only is Arnow’s debut feature perfectly attuned to the often mundane rhythms of life in New York, but it also sees her giving a fearless central performance. She gives everything to the humble film and the result is a comedic gem that is all its own. There is never a single moment where it feels like she or the film feels like it is even remotely compromising on the portrait being painted. Forget Fifty Shades of Grey, this is the film about BDSM for our time that is right up there with the recent Sanctuary.

What makes it a cut above is how Arnow weaves the complicated absurdities and relationships into the fabric of everyday life. We see the indignity of work where those in charge remain woefully out of touch with the realities of their industries just as we observe how Ann is willing to keep going back to a relationship where she is treated awfully if it represents what could be a familliar escape from everything else. It is frequently sad, consistently silly, and increasingly somber all at once.

What Is ‘The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed’ About?

This begins with Arnow’s naked Ann as she tries to get the attention of a man who is sleeping (or at least pretending to) next to her. Despite all her efforts, including talking dirty to him and humping against his body, Allen (Scott Cohen) can’t even be bothered to give her a second thought. How much of this is part of their dominant and submissive relationship versus him just being an asshole is the central tension that the film begins to excavate. As we get immersed in Ann’s painfully relatable day-to-day life, mostly consisting of strained family interactions, the most uniquely disgusting microwave meals you’ve ever seen, and a banal workplace overseen by incompetent management, the more humorously horrifying reality sets in that this relationship is the thing that may just be the bright spot in her life.

This has been going on for a decade with neither knowing much about the other. That Allen continually forgets (or pretends to forget) where she went to college elicits an effective sense of unease and discomfort even as Ann remains seemingly unperturbed by it all. At the same time, she bares both body and soul as we get to know her life so deeply that it feels like an epic novel has almost been condensed into a tight feature that runs under ninety minutes. It can all feel fleeting, but that is also the film’s greatest achievement. Is life not just a series of moments embarrassing, arousing, painful, funny, and sad before we all die? And, just as importantly, what would it be like to recreate that classic scene from the Titanic?

The way Arnow, who also serves as editor on the film, stitches this all together is perfection. Everything from the pacing to the precise moment when she cuts mines plenty of unexpected jokes and humor as various scenes come crashing into each other. While it would not be entirely correct to call any of the individual parts vignettes, they all pack their own individual strengths that then come together into a magnificent whole. As Ann drifts away from Allen to pursue other sexual relationships, we get snapshots of the variety of people and personalities seeking submissives. Some of these people are sweet while most are just strange. However, most importantly, never once does the film feel like it is shaming anyone or capturing their relationships as something inherently ridiculous. Each one of them is painfully human.

‘The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed’ Is a Magnificent Feature Deubt

Arnow teases out some great punchlines, from when a boomer boss talks inanely about the iPhone to when Ann’s mother tells her to not forget about bringing a banana on a trip, which are so oddly authentic it almost hurts. It ensures that amidst all the stellar jokes is an almost profound sense of both a place and people. Sure, there are sex gags galore that involve everything from pig noses to virtual masturbating. The key is that all of these things go hand in hand with the unendingly funny though no less incisive ideas that Arnow is playing around with. In every awkward encounter, something increasingly astounding is sneaking up on you.

The key is that each of these is deeply tied up in the personal journey of Ann as she tries to piece together what it is that she wants. There is no grand moment where she gives a speech about finally knowing how to live her life to the fullest. Instead, she seeks out a more romantic connection that she is hoping can also fulfill her desire to be a submissive. It’s this moment when the film shifts gears just a bit, slowing down from the rapid succession of encounters she was having before, in a way that could easily throw some those who had gotten used to its rhythms. This is no accident as it is about making us feel how a shift in life after years of settling into a routine, no matter how painful, can itself be a quietly tumultuous time.

Without going too far into the ending or a single interpretation, as Arnow’s vision is bursting with a variety of meanings to be discovered on multiple watches, there is a moment near the conclusion where a character in the film says a slightly different version of its title to Ann. That her response is the experience’s most revealing and almost entirely the opposite of what was being said provides one last subtly sidesplitting joke. This is followed by Arnow pulling off one more devastating cut that makes you almost want to shout as it rips us right back to how we began the film. In the end, Ann ends up embodying the title without even fully realizing it. It makes for a final moment of melancholy where all you can do is lay back and see the next decade stretching before her once more. What a frighteningly funny sight it is.

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

REVIEW

Joanna Arnow’s The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed is a magnificent feature debut and the funniest films of the year thus far.

Pros

• Arnow gives a fearless central performance, baring both body and soul at every turn.
• In addition to being both writer and director, Arnow does a spectacular job of editing the film’s already great scene into a wonderful whole.
• The ending ties all this together wonderfully, bringing the film full circle and providing one last devastating punchline.

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed comes to select theaters in the U.S. starting April 26 before expanding. Click below for showtimes near you.

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