IFFR
Amanda Kramer opens this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam with a bang.
Directed by: Amanda Kramer
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Length: 95 minutes
In Please Baby Please, writer-director Amanda Kramer explores the construct of gender in a gloriously camp fashion. We follow Suze (Andrea Riseborough) and her husband Arthur (Harry Melling), a seemingly normal Manhattan couple on their way home. An encounter with a group of greasers called Brando’s (A direct reference to actor Marlon Brando’s look in the 1953 film ‘The Wild One’) changes the trajectory of their lives, as both Suze and Arthur become obsessed with the way the Brando’s perform masculinity. Witnessing a murder awakens sexual feelings in Arthur for one of the Brando men, while Suze begins unraveling her own gender identity as a result of this life-altering event.
Please Baby Please asks what it means to be a man or woman and delves into all sorts of different possibilities and expressions within and outside of the binary gender system. These queer elements being part of what’s presented as an old Hollywood story à la West Side Story feels cathartic. Many films from that era (such as A Streetcar Named Desire and Pillow Talk, starring Rock Hudson) were stuffed with queer subtext, that couldn’t have been expressed in any other way due to the restrictive Hays code censoring many elements that were deemed ‘dangerous’ at the time. Kramer finds a way for queer people to reclaim all that was left unexpressed during that time.
Taking cues from John Waters, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Kenneth Anger, among others, the film wears its inspirations on its sleeve. An absurd, queer, campy tale, filled with eroticism and longing. In the opening scene, aside from the obvious old Hollywood era musical influences, there’s a strong sense of Anger to be felt in the air. A group of male figures in biking gear, armored with phallic-shaped batons that represent their masculinity, as they look for their prey. It’s not hard to imagine why Melling’s character falls for these men.
In fact, what Kramer shows to be best at here is being able to illustrate eroticism and sexual longing, without ever showing us genitals or sexual intercourse. It’s through the ever-present neon lighting, the suggestive costumes and the overly exaggerated masculine features that we get to experience the sensations our two leads experience. Kramer uses various techniques to add steam to this atmosphere; for example making use of smoke and bubbles. This creates a fantasy world within the real world of Suze and Arthur.
This fantasy world is expanded by having the entire film play out like a musical without conventional songs. Throughout the entire film, you can hear a jazzy score play that at times feels slightly disorienting. The film is choreographed fantastically, with the actors practically dancing on screen the entire time, even when not actually dancing. Various astonishing-looking musical interludes pull us into the deepest fantasies of our main characters. Then there’s the stretched-out sets and monochromatic lighting that feel like they could be taken straight out of a Greenaway joint.
The performances by the ensemble cast are all very dedicated. Actors truly disappear into their characters and seem to let everything else go. This applies especially to notorious chameleon actress Andrea Riseborough (Mandy, Nocturnal Animals, Possessor), who has been known for taking on not only physically but also spiritually transformative roles. Her role in Please Baby Please may be her most daring yet, because there’s not much about the character that feels human. As the character of Suzy delves more into the world of masculinity, she starts behaving more animalistic too, with Riseborough during one scene even crawling over the floor and starting to bark. You seldom see actors who are this dedicated to their characters, just like you seldom see characters written that push actors like Riseborough this far. In a grand return to the silver screen, we see veteran actress Demi Moore as Maureen, Suze’s upstairs neighbor, a housewife with a BDSM-twist. It’s a role you wouldn’t expect the actress, or any 59 year old Hollywood actress, to take on, which only adds to the strength and uniqueness of this piece.
It seems like we’re only just entering the age of Kramer. The director has just premiered her third and fourth feature films and is already working on another film in which Riseborough will star too. This may be the first time that you’ve heard of Amanda Kramer, but watch out, with the work this director is delivering, it sure won’t be the last time.
Please Baby Please premiered at the 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam as part of the Focus: Amanda Kramer selection. Here Kramer also premiered her film Give Me Pity.
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