Yeast + Q&A

A maddeningly oblivious, tyrannical and emotionally stunted young woman tries her best to negotiate two toxic friendships.

Director Mary Bronstein co-stars with Greta Gerwig and Amy Judd in
this raw-looking, raw-feeling drama, from 2008, about three artistic
young friends in Brooklyn who struggle with romance, money, and
adulthood as they lovingly exacerbate one another’s misery. Rachel
(played by Bronstein), a teacher, seems to be the most stable of the
trio; Alice (Judd) is something of a lost soul who eagerly shares her
anguish; and Jen (Gerwig) has a passive-aggressive streak, which
reaches a crescendo in a scene that deserves inclusion in movie
anthologies as well as in psychology textbooks. (Gerwig’s actorly
inventiveness, in all its wild spontaneity, has rarely had such a
showcase.) The drama is rooted in complications arising from a simple
situation: the group’s effort to go on a weekend road trip. The
handheld cinematography, by Sean Price Williams and a quartet of
others (including the director Josh Safdie), powerfully evokes the
women’s furious reckoning with their outer constraints and inner
chaos. Bronstein’s exhilarating meditation on performance and
identity advances to a resolution that is as surprising as it is
transcendent.
— Richard Brody

Screens with: Round Town Girls (Mary Bronstein, Amy Seimetz, Ronals Bronstein | 2009 | 10MIN)

The Round Town Girls (Mary Bronstein and Amy Seimetz) are the
spiritual progeny of Andrea Dworkin and The Terminator– two gutter
punks calling themselves Hymen Holoco$t who terrorize an overly
accommodating man for (what else?) laughs.

Q&A with writer/director/star Mary Bronstein following 3/10 screening.

Q&A with writer/director/star Mary Bronstein following 3/24 screening.

Intro with writer/director/star Mary Bronstein 3/25 screening.