Written and directed by Lawrence Michael Levine
Starring Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott, and Sarah Gadon
Running time: 1 hour and 44 minutes
MPAA rating: R for language, nudity, sexual situations

by Audrey Callerstrom

Black Bear, the meta-indie from Lawrence Michael Levine (Always Shine, Wild Canaries) opens with Allison (Aubrey Plaza), sitting on a dock in a red swimsuit, looking over a foggy lake. It’s a beautiful sight, but Plaza looks irritated, if not a little vacant. She stands, putting her body weight into her hands first, and then slips her towel around her waist in one graceful move. Then she walks up to the cabin.

Levine uses this shot a couple times in Black Bear to tell two different stories with roughly the same primary cast of actors: Plaza as Allison, Christopher Abbott as Gabe, and Sarah Gadon as Blair. In the first story, The Bear in the Road, Allison is an actor turned filmmaker, a sassy wit with a sharp tongue. She rents a room at the lakeside cabin owned by Gabe, who brings along his pregnant girlfriend, Blair. Allison needs some time away to write her next film. Allison and Gabe have instant chemistry, moving and talking more like new lovers than strangers. Something is off with Gabe and Blair. Allison sees their tension, and jumps on it, like she’s picking a scab. It’s as though all Allison had to do was to say a magic word in order for the couple to start lashing out at each other. It certainly doesn’t help that she’s sexy and fun to be around.

The Bear in the Road feels like a play. The chemistry between these three actors ignites; every prop and piece of the set could disappear and it wouldn’t matter because we’re so engaged. It’s also uncomfortable and anxiety-inducing (that’s a compliment!) Like Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell, there are scenes that are cringeworthy and uncomfortable and go on for a long time. A cheaper film would cut away; a shot from outside, a drone’s view of the cabin or the trees, “oh hey look, the tea is ready,” etc. But Levine wants you to stare right at this car wreck of ugly emotions.

Once this story reaches its conclusion, the films cut to the same shot of Plaza on the dock, and now she’s an actor shooting a film in the story The Bear By The Boat House. Gabe is the director, insisting on multiple takes of Allison looking out at the lake. She’s difficult, he says; if only she could nail the takes like her costar, Blair. He’s also Allison’s husband. Everything about the shoot starts going wrong. The script supervisor is high and can’t remember what page they’re on. A member of the crew (Paola Lázaro) has diarrhea. Someone spills hot coffee on Blair’s white oxford shirt not once, but twice. And Allison, torn with jealousy by how Gabe and Blair are flirting, starts to drink - heavily - and fly off the rails.

Plaza is terrific in this film. It’s too small and weird to garner talk of awards, and what are awards anyway, but she absolutely goes for it here, the way that actresses like Laura Dern and Elisabeth Moss do. She is unhinged. This is an actress who never formally studied acting. She went to college to study film and then got into the improv scene. It’s such a daring role that other actresses might have played with more tragedy, or been overly concerned with how they look at any given moment. Plaza isn’t. Abbott, following up his excellent performance in Possessor, plays remarkably different Gabes; in the first one he’s weaker, making excuses and apologizing for Blair. In the second, he’s the manipulator, gaslighting Allison to get the performance he wants (and also because he’s an asshole). Anyone who has ever been close to a film set (or any kind of set) will appreciate just how funny it is when things go wrong in the second story. These moments of levity are brief, and you have to look for them, because this is an intense film that doesn’t release you from its grip until the end credits.

Black Bear is in select theaters and on demand today, December 4.