Unexpected

Courtesy of The Film Arcade

The Mumblecore movement has produced some really amazing talents in the last ten years. The Duplass Brothers have made a handful of really great films, and have even begun producing some seriously radical indie projects. One of the freer examples is Joe Swanberg, whose wife Kris Swanberg directed this film. Completely separate from her husband's style, and an innovator in her own right, Swanberg has forged ahead with this story of two separate environments with two distinct women in the same situation.

 Colbie Smulders plays a passionate high school science teacher named Sam, who finds herself at a loss when the school she is teaching at announces it’s going to close. Soon after she realizes she is pregnant. Scrambling to figure out a plan that balances her need to work outside the home and make her life work with her current situation, Sam is at a loss at understanding how her life has been unexpectedly changed. At the same time a student of hers learns that she is pregnant, and has to adjust from her previous goal of getting into college, and also raising a child. Both try to understand their limitations and new outlooks on life with the addition of a child.

 There have been a great many films in the past several years that delve into female issues that haven't been addressed before. Indie filmmaking really is a great space for women to tell stories that studios don't want to put their heft behind, thinking that male audiences won't respond to female perspectives. How children are brought into the world, and raised, is a seminal issue for everyone, not just women. This story focuses mostly on Sam's convictions, but also does a great job of showing how men are as involved in these decisions as women. It also speaks to the guilt that modern feminists feel for wanting more outside the home, and how much pressure it is to choose between your child and your work life. There always being a drawback to either choice. Having a second character dealing with their own unique issues relating to raising a child shows how everyone's situation is different, and priorities are shaped by situation more than desire.

 This may not be the best film to deal with such issues, as it doesn't always tackle race, poverty, or other options besides having the baby, it does smartly juxtapose WOC and white feminism's separate issues in an intersectional way not always seen by mainstream film's standards.