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WATCH: Everyone wants to get their hands on the model in one of the queerest movies of the year (so far)

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Image Credits: ‘Stress Positions,’ NEON

Okay, let’s get this out of the way first: The upcoming indie comedy Stress Positions? Yes, it’s a pandemic movie—set in the early days of our nationwide quarantine.

But don’t let that deter you from watching one of the sharpest, funniest, queerest movies of the year.

While a number of film and TV projects popped up in the wake of COVID-19‘s arrival in the States, attempting to “capture our collective moment” to mixed-to-negative results, Stress Positions merely uses it as a backdrop for a wild farce that brilliantly blends biting satire with slapstick comedy and one of the most shockingly hilarious sight gags you’ll see all year.

From writer-director Theda Hammel—best known as on of the co-hosts of the absolutely essential NYMPHOWARS podcast—the film follows Brooklynite Terry Goon (John Early, scene-stealer of Search Party and just about everything else he’s been in) who is attempting a strict quarantine in his ex-husband’s dilapidated brownstone apartment.

Living with Terry is his nephew, Bahlul, a gorgeous 19-year-old model originally from Morocco, who is bedridden after an accident left in a full-length leg cast. Unfortunately for Terry, everyone wants to come over and meet the model.

Bahlul, by the way, is played by real-life model Qaher Harhash in his debut acting role, and it’s a real casting coup because, well, Harhash is gorgeous. Who wouldn’t want to meet him?

Like a true bedroom farce, Terry’s apartment becomes a revolving door of eccentric characters—against his better judgment. There’s his best friend, Karla (Hammel), a bodyworker who wants to get her hands on Bahlul, her girlfriend Vanessa (Problemista‘s Amy Zimmer), a semi-successful novelist, Terry’s eccentric neighbor Coco (Rebecca F. Wright), flirty delivery guy Ronaldo (the film’s co-writer Faheem Ali), and Terry’s hard-partying ex Leo (John Roberts, a.k.a. the voice of Linda on Bob’s Burgers).

Related:

John Roberts on 250 episodes of ‘Bob’s Burgers,’ and why he doesn’t use Linda’s voice in the bedroom

Meet the man who’s been voicing Linda Belcher, everyone’s favorite mom (well, besides their own) for over 12 years.

With each passing day, Terry struggles more and more with keeping it all together, and longtime fans of Early will love this performance showcase which let’s him put his gift for physical comedy to good use.

But Stress Positions also holds a mirror up to our self-obsessed little worlds, tackling everything from millennial anxiety to identity politics to liberal posturing to the American Dream to Fire Island (which Karla cracks is a “sort of beach retreat for the children of Sodom”) to the end of the world.

After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this past January—where we called it one of the best of the fest—Stress Positions is set to open at the IFC Center in New York City on April 19, then expand to Los Angeles and select theaters across the country of April 26.

You can check out its wild first trailer below:

Related:

Sundance 2024 Superlatives: The best, sexiest, funniest, & wildest premieres of the fest

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