She's Lost Control

Plot

While studying for her master's degree, Ronah works as sexual surrogate in New York City under therapist Dr. Alan Cassidy. Cassidy refers to her a new client, Johnny, a man with intimacy issues. On their first appointment, Johnny drinks alcohol, which Ronah discourages, though she says he can discuss the matter with Cassidy. Johnny's hostility to Ronah's attempts to get him to open up eventually leads him to reveal in one session that he does not trust her and desires to strangle her. In her progress reports with Cassidy, Ronah confirms her desire to continue working with him, as she does not want to give up on him. Johnny continues to drink during their sessions, citing a guideline from Cassidy that one drink before their session is fine.

While Ronah works with her clients, she experiences increasing stress in her personal life. Her apartment building's maintenance man breaks through the wall in her shower to reach a leaky pipe on a complaint by her neighbor, then leaves the hole unfixed for weeks. Her brother contacts her via video chat with news that their mother, suffering from dementia, has gone missing. When he chastises her for not being more involved in their mother's care, she says she has been busy with her studies and work. She offers money, which he declines. She has also been freezing her eggs to make getting pregnant easier in the future, as she does not have a boyfriend. Ronah becomes friendly with her neighbor, but later finds her neighbor has filed a lawsuit against the superintendent; in turn, the superintendent has filed suit against Ronah.

Although Johnny slowly warms to her, he remains distrustful and occasionally hostile. Their sessions progress from looking directly in each other's eyes and non-sexual touching to eventually include genital contact. Pleased that Johnny has opened enough to allow this, Ronah reports this to Cassidy. She also confers with her mentor, Irene, who has taken a teaching position. As they discuss difficult cases, Ronah asks how to handle when one party falls in love with the other. As they talk about falling in love with clients, Irene recommends a healthy social life outside of professional relationships. However, Ronah becomes increasingly obsessed with Johnny and follows him to the hospital where he works as a nurse anesthetist to spy on him. When she sees him flirt with a coworker, she becomes jealous.

In their next session, Ronah demands that Johnny describe any sexual relationships he has outside of their own; he refuses. At the same time, she becomes more open and answers his questions about her own personal life. After they have sex, she stays with him overnight. Johnny leaves the bed and angrily yells at his reflection in the mirror. Concerned, Ronah asks him what's wrong, and he angrily lashes out at her, accusing her of faking her intimacy with him. After he beats her, she goes to the police. They offer to enact a restraining order, but she leaves before filing charges. Ronah attempts to contact her neighbor to no avail, and takes a harassing phone call from a prior client. Overwhelmed, she begins crying. Later, after being treated at a hospital for her wounds, her brother picks her up and remarks that her make-up causes her to look older.

Cast

Brooke Bloom as Ronah

Marc Menchaca as Johnny

Dennis Boutsikaris as Dr. Alan Cassidy

Laila Robins as Irene

Tobias Segal as Christopher

Roxanne Day as Claire

Ryan Homchick as Andro

Robert Longstreet as C.T.

Production

Initial production funds for She's Lost Control were raised on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, earning a total of $50,081 by November 9, 2012. The film was shot entirely in New York City. Principal photography commenced June 28, 2013.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 74% of 19 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.8/10. Metacritic rated it rated it 59/100 based on nine reviews.

David Rooney in his review for The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "austerely elegant", "acted with naturalistic intensity", "arrestingly lit and shot, exhibiting a sharp eye for expressive compositions." However, he criticized it as "somewhat overly infatuated with its own dour, subdued style". Marc Adams of Screen International said in his review that there's "much to admire in Marquardt’s control and precision as well as a well sustained lead performance by lead actress Brooke Bloom (...) Brooke Bloom is impressive... while Menchaca is equally impressive." Adams called the film "astutely cold and compelling", "unglossy and taut." Eric Kohn of Indiewire called the film "a fascinating debut" and "engrossing" and graded the film A− by saying that "She's Lost Control strikes a fascinating mood between slow-building angst and cold remove not unlike the Joy Division song that provides its title." Steve Dollar of The Wall Street Journal featured the film saying its "wintry visual design and tone of isolation feels akin to dystopian science-fiction or a horror film, the kind in which high-rise apartment buildings leak paranoia. Against the chill, Ms. Bloom performs with flesh-and-blood urgency."

In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Katie Walsh finds that the "cinematic style and themes of urban alienation reflect almost a 1970s thriller quality, though the execution is decidedly modern. "She's Lost Control" is a quiet triumph, a true herald of a distinctive and necessary voice in cinema." Ronnie Scheib of Variety wrote that the film's clinical compositions create "an uncomfortable tension" with the warmth of Bloom's acting but could alienate audiences. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote that it "sustains a mood of deepening alienation, but the attitude of the movie is too detached for it to be emotionally gripping, and its ending is botched." Kenji Fujishima of Slant Magazine rated it 2.5/4 stars and wrote that although the film "raises a lot of genuinely thought-provoking questions", it "loses control of the most interesting and provocative threads of its vision".