Directed by David Gutnik
Written by Assol Abdullina, Jade Eshete, and David Gutnik
Starring Assol Abdullina, Jade Eshete, Kate Lyn Sheil, Lyndsay Burdge, and Rory Culkin
Unrated - 1 hour 45 minutes
Available digitally and on demand August 10

by Audrey Callerstrom

Dramatic films with stories divided into segments were popular in the early aughts. There was Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 21 Grams (2003), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001), and of course the problematic and dated Crash (2004). These days, a film with multiple stories, each following a separate character, is more likely seen in a horror anthology, where each segment has a different director. Materna, the feature film debut from David Gutnik, brings in four talented actresses to tell four unique stories with varying results. What’s also unique about Materna is that two of the film’s actresses contributed to the script, presumably to their respective stories. 

The four women, varying in age from 20s to early 30s, are all connected by an act of violence they witness on the subway. A creepy man named Paul (played by country singer Sturgill Simpson) provokes the young women on the subway, demanding a response. Gutnik captures how scary and isolating these moments can be. You can’t walk away, and in most cases, you can’t move. You’re trapped. The first story stars Kate Lyn Sheil (She Dies Tomorrow) as Jean, who has an unexplained job working with virtual reality technology. In an eerie sequence, Jean, wearing a black suit made of white dots, experiences a violent, virtual sexual encounter. Jean lives an isolated existence, working from home, ordering everything she needs online. Just like with She Dies Tomorrow, Sheil proves a capable actress even with little to no dialogue. Jean has a strained relationship with her mom, who sends her unsolicited links to articles about freezing your eggs. It’s another showcase for Sheil’s talent, although the intention remains unclear. This first story seems most closely related to the film’s title than the other stories that follow.

The second segment follows Mona (Jade Eshete, who is also credited as a writer), a struggling actress. We only ever see Mona with her acting coach, who is very critical of Mona. Separately, Mona struggles with her mother over text messages. Mona was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, and she tries to maintain a relationship with her mom while also still avoiding the church. Mona’s acting is a way for her to confront her mother, and her acting coach, Wanda (Cassanda Freeman) pushes Mona into a breakdown. While this premise of a woman trying to forge a relationship with her mother is promising, we never get to see Mona with her mother, which would have made this story carry more weight. The scenes with the acting coach tend to grow repetitive. The performances are effective, but ultimately I found this segment lacking.

The third segment is uncomfortable and it borders on satire, although it also includes capable actors. A mother, Ruth (Lindsay Burdge) is dealing with the suspension of her 10-year-old son, Jared (Jake Katzman). She doesn’t know the circumstances surrounding the suspension, and Jared claims not to remember. Jared feels persecuted at school. While his teachers talk to the class about racism and privilege, Jared feels like, as a white straight male, everything is his fault. Ruth goes on multiple rants to her brother, Gabe (Rory Culkin). Ruth and her husband (Michael Chernus) are New York elite “I’m not a racist” racists. After all, how could Ruth be racist when her dog is named Mariah Carey? Gabe, the wiser sibling, is called upon by Ruth to talk to Jared. Ruth and Gabe have an uncomfortable, repetitive rant over the dinner table. Gabe insists they need to be mindful of their privileges and institutionalized racism, while Ruth and her husband mock him for being a social justice warrior. It’s an uncomfortable scene, and both Burdge and Culkin keep things tense. The incessant barking from Mariah Carey (the dog) makes the scene feel maddening. This scene pushes things a bit too far. Most people like the family in this segment know how wrong it is to say things like “All Lives Matter.” A little subtlety would have gone a long way, but the performances are great, especially Culkin.

The last segment breaks the mold of the previous three, which took place within claustrophobic, indoor spaces. Assol Abdullina, who contributed to the script, plays Perizad, a young woman who has to travel from New York to her home country of Kyrgyzstan following her father’s death. The circumstances surrounding her father’s death remain unclear, and her mother and grandmother (Jamal Seidakmatova and Zhamilya Sydykbaeva) are dodgy about what happened. There’s enough here for a stand alone film, which isn’t true of the other segments. Sturgill Simpson’s performance as the man on the subway is unsettling and downright scary. The subway moments feel like a horror film, he’s that creepy.

Materna is ambitious, with some standout performances, but it could benefit from some fine-tuning of the script to elevate some of the weaker stories. Ultimately it succeeds in showing the intimate lives of women of varying ages and ethnicities, even if it decides to pull back and not reveal the outcome of the violent act that unites them.