Santa Fe Independent Film Festival: ‘Imaginary Order’ Review

Known primarily for laughs, certified comedy genius Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids) spreads out into strange drama in Imaginary Order, a subversive, excruciating look at suburban American family life and just how tenuous and absurd it can be.

McLendon-Covey is Cathy, a middle-aged mom in a stalled marriage and at the cusp of her middle school-aged daughter's rebellious phase, who falls in with the decidedly more carefree Gemma Jean (Hey Ladies star Christine Woods) while cat-sitting for her sister. Ditching the claustrophobic routine of her daily life for day-drinking and painkillers, Cathy, who fights the change at first but gives in rather easily, begins to come apart, sleeping with her new friend's husband, distrusting her own spouse because of it and, maybe worst of all, losing her sister's cat while on drugs. Reeling, Cathy forms a strange pseudo-emotional relationship with Gemma Jeans' 15-year-old son Xander (Max Burkholder) who soon becomes obsessed, and her weird-yet-banal double life begins to show up on her doorstep when Xander sets his eyes on her daughter Tara (Kate Alberts) after Cathy makes it clear they won't be sleeping together.

McLendon-Covey is a revelation, all bubbling anxieties and not-so-subtle internal emotional explosions as even her lower-stakes lies begin catching up with her. The center of her family's orbit, she gives her version of her all only to be beaten down, unappreciated and downright insulted—we don't blame her for needing a release. And for this, we love her, even when we kind of hate her; as anyone who leads a stressful life can attest to, sometimes people are hanging on by a thread.

East Bound and Down's Steve Little provides a delightfully unexpected turn as the shitheel husband who hasn't necessarily done anything wrong, but who isn't exactly innocent, either, and Burkholder's portrayal of lovesick teen is so painfully spot-on that we cringe despite our best attempts at empathy; he's pathetic even as he thinks he's being cool and even as he's obviously ripping off EE Cummings.

And so it all comes to a sort of open-ended head. It's unclear if there's a specific moral or lesson, though there often isn't one in our lives. Regardless, if this is the kind of film we can expect from writer-director Debra Eisenstadt moving forward, we picture great things.

9
+McLendon-Covey; teen weirdness
-Slows toward the end; not always believable

Imaginary Order
Directed by Eisenstadt
With McLendon-Covey, Burkholder, Woods, Little and Alberts
Santa Fe Independent Film Festival Center for Contemporary Arts,
NR, 101 min.