The Exploding Girl

d. Bradley Rust Gray/USA/2009/75 minutes

“The Exploding Girl functions both as a discreet character study and as a tranquil city portrait, finding moments of repose amid urban cacophony.” – The New York Times

“A magnificent sense of visual clarity… Kazan’s performance has a welcome fragility to it.” – Indiewire

In her first leading role, Zoe Kazan (granddaughter of Elia) plays Ivy, a twenty-year-old college student home for summer break. (Click here to view trailer.) She’s excited about a developing romance back at school and life is seemingly perfect. When her longtime friend Al finds himself without a place to stay during the break, Ivy and her mother take him in and Al and Ivy’s friendship strengthens while her relationship with her boyfriend Greg falters – sporadic phone calls and awkward pauses suggest emotional as well as physical distance. Increasingly distressed about her conflicting feelings, Ivy struggles to keep control of a life that is purposely uneventful as she avoids overwhelming the emotions that trigger her epilepsy.

While the threat of a seizure hovers over the movie, as does the specter of an outburst of pent-up, half-understood feeling, the film is driven less by plot than by a desire to intimately explore the quiet moods and daily interactions of its characters. It follows some intriguing tangents too as Ivy and Al inch toward acknowledging their simmering mutual feelings.

The Exploding Girl is focused squarely on Ivy, portrayed with quietly impressive skill by Kazan who nails the blinking awkwardness of a young woman who hasn't yet learned to control her own beauty – and earns Best Actress kudos at the Tribeca Film Festival in the process. Restrained and meditative, The Exploding Girl is the exquisite portrait of a young girl coming of age and finding a deeper kind of love in New York City.

Film screens at the BUEI Tradewinds Auditorium on Thursday, 22 July at 6.30pm. Tickets are available at the door from 5.30pm. Film club members $8; regular tickets $10. Film running time is 75 minutes. For reservations and all inquiries email info@biff.bm or call 293 3456.