The story of falling for your best friend is a recognizable one for many women, and So Yong Kim‘s indie feature “Lovesong” is about that thin line between intense emotional connection and genuine romantic intimacy.
Riley Keough‘s Sarah is an unsettled housewife and young mother whose newlywed bliss is marred by her husband’s consistent traveling and unwillingness to accommodate their family. A close friend from college, Mindy (Jena Malone), comes to visit and joins Sarah and her three-year-old daughter, Jessie, on a road trip, which has the two women reconnecting, waxing nostalgic about their shared past and bringing up the memory of a night they were asked to have a threesome but couldn’t go through with it. The late-night imbibed conversation leads to their getting physical for the first time, but Sarah’s inability to talk about anything more in the morning has Mindy hopping on the train earlier than expected.
Years later, Mindy’s getting married, and Sarah brings Jessie to the weekend wedding. Despite Mindy’s professed happiness, her bachelorette party turns into their grazing hands, dancing sensually and Mindy showing up at Sarah’s hotel room, and the next day — the day of the ceremony — has the two processing what their relationship meant to them both.
Both Riley Keough and Jena Malone have played queer roles on-screen before (Riley in The Girlfriend Experience as well as So Yong Kim’s previous feature, Jack & Diane; Jena in The Neon Demon), and they share a believable chemistry that drives the relatable narrative that offers feelings of jealousy, wanting, regret and desire. Despite both Sarah and Mindy being involved in relationships with men, their longing looks at one another and pointed conversations about their lives and each other’s place in them offer an electricity that no one else can. Sarah is herself when she’s with Mindy, and Mindy, with Sarah, finally turns off what feels like an elaborate act. They are better together — if only it could be like that always.
Lovesong debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last year and is now coming to theaters February 17. The new trailer has been released, which you can watch below.