The dregs of upper-middle-class humanity are on display in Beeswax. It's a story about a pair of sisters who run a boutique, which may be being shutdown due to a disagreement between the business partners. In between, of course, there's plenty of room for ugly sex scenes, meandering conversations and superfluous exposition. The dialogue is drowning in a sea of "umms" and "yeahs," leaning on that old "well we just improvised everything" crutch. But this is nails-on-chalkboard awkward. It hurts.
I'd like to give the film credit in some backhanded way, as many no doubt have (it's sitting at 92% from Top Critics at Rotten Tomatoes,) by saying that draining the emotion from its characters and story makes some kind of higher statement about the emotionless-ness of people in today's world. And the film does manage to work up a smidgen of dramatic tension near the end, and, in lock step with tradition, ends with a spectacular whimper. But in the end, I have to say--people quite simply aren't actually this fucking awkward in real life. To me, it's just a cheap substitute for having to actually portray the emotions a person might be feeling in a given moment. People have feelings, dude. REAL feelings. And often times, they can actually be articulate about them. There's your movie, man. Get to work.
