Ann S. is a millennial who spends her days anonymously in a drab, mid-level corporate job of indeterminate nature as a “Clinical Media Learning E-Specialist.” Sometimes she visits her parents who offer conversation so glib that it borders on the abstract. She sees friends. Some days she attends yoga. She has heavily freighted, fraught exchanges with her basic sister. By night she engages as a submissive in a series of BDSM relationships. But even there, she has become more a passive spectator than an enthusiastic participant. At nearly 10 years in, Ann feels a stagnation with “Master” Allen, increasingly discomfited by his total disinterest in her outside the confines of the bedroom. She proposes that they get to know each other more intimately, but has second thoughts on the matter physically shrinking when he tells her of his particular interest in Zionism.
A parade of middling and nightmarish suitors follow before she meets Chris. Chris checks all the boxes – handsome, smart, talented, and kind. For the first time, Ann feels something like love. Yet still, something is amiss.
Assembled in loose, casually absurd vignettes, this sardonically funny feature debut of director, screenwriter, editor, and lead actors Joanna Arnow (who exhibits some first-rate physical comedy) is a major statement from a rising talent.
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. She also directed several other films including the personal documentary feature i hate myself :), a film that was named on top ten lists at IndieWire and Fandor. Her films have screened at other festivals including Rotterdam, Hong Kong International and Guanajuato. Joanna has participated in a number of workshops and development programs including Berlinale Talents, Berlinale Script Station, Gotham Week, When East Meets West, New York Film Festival Artist Academy and Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective.
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, Collins Salovaara’s Google Ambien, Veronica Rutlege’s forthcoming Citizen Zero, and Colin Healey’s In the Cards. Joanna also writes fiction and draws comics. Her pieces have been published in Glimmer Train Press, Popula, Monkeybicycle, Crack the Spine, Nanoism and Dogzplot.
The Feeling That The Time for Doing Something Has Passed is her first narrative feature film.