Director Silva (“The Maid”) has a lively style but subtlety is not a strong suit. On the street at night, Rio finds a homeless shelter, but the female supervisor (Jo Young) tries to sexually molest him until a protector comes along. Dejected, Rio returns home and blurts out to his religious parents that he’s gay, whereupon his father (Marshall Brandon) kicks him out. Bronx teen Rio (Lex Santos) meekly tries to kiss older show-off friend Diami (Antonio Stewart), who flips. “Dance Dance Dance” is more straightforward, with occasional clumsy moments. Musical choices, including Melanie Safka’s “Brand New Key,” perfectly suit the quirky material. The helmer, in her second omnibus short, uses a montage style of impressionistic counterpoint, juxtaposing full-screen images in Academy ratio to convey mood and a sense of an interior life otherwise not obvious in this strange, and strangely quiet, woman. Lacking any know-how and apparently completely alone in the world, she looks with covetous wonder at other new parents. Wasikowska’s “Afterbirth” is a more sensory film, featuring a young woman (Kathryn Beck) full of love for her newborn son but completely unequipped to be a mother. The performances are especially strong during this segment. Allwyn, probably only a decade younger but fluent in internet temptations, is carnally more aware yet lacks experience, plus he has youth’s selfishness. Kashyap found the perfect apartment to shoot it all, with a birdcage-style balcony reinforcing Archana’s trophy-like status: She’s meant to be seen (fully clothed, of course) but denied independence. She’s developed a close friendship in her idle hours with neighboring teen Allwyn (Adarsh Gourav), palpably in love with the woman and, though a virgin, far more aware of the naked form than Archana. Archana (Radhika Apte) is a housewife and mother, unquestioning in the inequitable power relationship with husband Sudhir (Satyadeep Misra). In terms of story, Kashyap’s “Clean Shaven” is the most interesting and the most subversive, addressing traditional marriage constructs, inter-generational friendship and the male-female divide in a refreshingly frank manner. Even so, “Madly” will see traction largely through streaming platforms - which should suit Viacom just fine.
Tones range from dramatic ( Anurag Kashyap, Sebastián Silva) to moody ( Mia Wasikowska, Gael García Bernal, Natasha Khan) to silly ( Sion Sono), most made in English, presumably to boost viewer numbers. Like most compilation projects, the effort yields an uneven anthology with little thematic glue holding it together, although for the most part, the six shorts could stand alone and overall quality is high. upcomingregionalsection.cms?parentid=61017241&genere=*:* /upcomingregionalsection.With “Madly,” the international cool set comes together to make an omnibus film about passionate love, spanning place and sexuality, but not the limitations of the form.
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