Addison Heimann’s Contact Me feels tailored for 2000s teenagers who got here of age exploring Newgrounds.com’s area of interest recognition and impartial video retailer backrooms. Its confrontations of trauma are veiled behind luxurious Japanese media influences: “Pink” movies, anime, and hentai. Heimann’s cosmically carnal story is openly bare — pun meant. Contact Me’s alien erotica bares all in an orgy of anxious spirals, wriggly appendages, and repressed unhappiness. Anticipate a sexually charged commentary on masturbatory struggling with love paid to Gregg Araki and John Waters, which — whereas divisive — bursts with unbridled originality that cements Heimann as a filmmaking voice everybody ought to observe.
Olivia Taylor Dudley stars as Joey, the stressed-out byproduct of foster care and a considerable wine reliance. At her lowest, she’s ingesting reds whereas pretending to work at a espresso store. At her highest, Joey experiences the euphoria of interspecies intercourse with a celestial being who claims he needs to avoid wasting Earth. Joey breaks away from her extraterrestrial lover Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci) after an evening of dangerously passionate sexing, however she finds herself again at his modernistic mansion touching magical crystals together with her present bestie Craig (Jordan Gavaris). She can not resist Brian’s therapeutic powers nor his hip-hop dance strikes — like an addict going again for an additional hit.
Heimann’s enjoying with a thematic loaded gun by stitching trauma and dependancy collectively, however avoids taking stray storytelling photographs. Contact Me doesn’t concern mess in any regard. Brian’s softcore tentacle porn writhes in its juices whereas Joey and Craig expose themselves as catty vape-sucking enablers. There’s a stability between gory cash photographs, orgasmic releases, and bonafide therapeutic qualities. Whether or not or not Brian soothes Joey and Craig’s emotional scars with benevolent intentions is irrelevant as a result of Heimann is illustrating one thing extra important. Getting higher takes invaluable, painful work that may inevitably worsen earlier than you’ll be able to transfer ahead — the message Heimann buries below superb smut.
And, the smut is superb.
Contact Me basks in psychosexual taboo, however not with out tact or sensuality. Its tentacular intercourse scenes thrive below neon hues as Brian and Joey interlock atop Japanese-influenced structure, flavorful of their estranged tastes. Heimann’s intoxicating model of forbidden romance juxtaposes in opposition to the movie’s swerve into extra diabolical occasions as climaxes turn into shotgun blasts of gore. Style parts are swirled collectively in a spunky, bloody, emotionally charged tapestry of sci-fi-freaky “trauma porn,” fairly actually. The horror comedy’s fetishism is natural; the elation on Joey’s face is sublimely genuine. Stay-action hentai is a dangerous proposition, however Heimann does an distinctive job in bodily displaying Brian’s lifting, massaging photographs, and the conveyed stimulation that’s as free because the director’s artistic expression.
For as beastly, gory, and creature-forward Contact Me turns into, it’s nonetheless dominantly a personality examine. Anxieties stemming from traumatic repression are heroically displayed by the movie’s central quartet. Dudley and Gavaris boast an unmistakably in-tune banter as slackers surviving on nepotism and vibes, but additionally thrive of their standoffish rivalry as soon as Brian accepts Craig into his therapeutic bubble. Their coexistence is a catastrophe, but at their lowest, they want one another so desperately. Contact Me places a highlight on Dudley as Joey juggles her panic, Craig’s bandaids, and Brian’s suspicious salvation — letting herself succumb to Joey’s hurricane of distress and superficiality — however she’s not alone. Gavaris’ nepobaby whining and self-serving generosity outline poisonous relationships even when helpful, as Heimann’s characters discover the hardships and easiness of repeating patterns that preserve us from beating our demons.
Then there’s Pucci, enjoying an extraterrestrial man-child who operates like a tracksuited cult chief. He’s not requested to cover his alien intentions, which permits Pucci to make the most of nonchalantness as a comedic gadget. Brian’s contact could also be a supply of envious blankness that erases destructively human ideas, however his intentions are nebulous. Pucci’s hilarious, aggressively charming, and transformative as an alien who says the quiet elements out loud. The physicality of his gyrations and welcoming, soft-eyed aura are supposed to throw purple flags, however Brian’s magnetic sights enable us to fall below his spell. I’ve lengthy adored Pucci’s style roles, from the masterful Spring to 2013’s terrifying Evil Lifeless remake, however Contact Me is perhaps his most achieved total. There’s nuance and naughtiness in spades, anchoring the movie’s audaciousness.
However most impressively? Heimann’s stylistic prowess is a candy-coated homage to the Japanese “Pink” movies talked about above. Rooms crammed with rosy cherry blossom timber vividly pop in opposition to the deepest blue flooring, as contrasting colours explode off the display. Contact Me adores its influences but will not be restricted by singular assertions. Hazy upper-crust pretension fades into attractive worldwide symbolism, but a shock black-and-white movie noir sequence jostles expectations. There’s additionally the hardcore 80s creature work, as Brian’s bug-eyed type makes uncamouflaged appearances. Heimann’s standing as a scholar of cinema is on show, which solely provides to his sophomore venture’s undefinable attract.
Contact Me is a dazzler; it is graphic and swish. Heimann’s intimate, bleeding-heart style hybrid performs by its personal guidelines. Ambitions are grand and certain; some tonal craziness will get jumbled within the fold, however Contact Me acknowledges the place threads get a bit skinny. Maybe Heimann’s meta jokes are his surfaced insecurities, beating critics to the punch, however even at that, he confidently dares to face by what’s offered. Contact Me won’t be for everybody, however that’s what’s thrilling. As somebody who struggles with anxiousness and processing trauma, this film hit me like a spacecraft at mild velocity. For individuals who want Contact Me, it’ll converse their language in a approach few motion pictures are brave sufficient to try.
Film Rating: 4/5
