Family Matters
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be coming soon. (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: Teenage Bella (Alexandra Faye Sadeghian) lives (as best I can surmise) in the countryside near NYC with her emotionally/physically sick mother, Yeva (Pooya Mohseni), and her uncle/stepfather, Gordy (Bryant Carroll)—slight shades of Hamlet; Bella’s father killed himself when she was 9, Mom then married his brother who’s verbally and physically abusive to both of the women in this house. But when Bella finds out he concealed an acceptance letter for her to attend a NYC art college (she’s a welder who makes metal sculptures), she blows up, forces him to leave; sadly, though, Yeva takes him in again so Bella, angry, puts a few belongings in her backpack, takes her tiny pet squirrel, Bandit, with her, gets on a train for Manhattan (Yeva’s devastated when she realizes her daughter’s gone). Bella has no friends in the city, little money, no clear idea of what to do next until she ends up in a club where she makes friends with bartender Marta (Jessica Pimentel) who gives her a night job (and declares Bandit as the club mascot), lets her sleep in the basement; then she scores a day job at a coffee shop from barista Owais (Ramin Karimloo) where she meets a customer, Standrick (Jaye Alexander), who turns out to be a clothes designer, runs a nearby shop.
All of these folks have their problems in parallel to Bella’s: Marta’s an undocumented immigrant who killed her husband so she’s trying to lay low, not become known to the authorities; Owais is an ex-soldier with great remorse over his actions in the service (seemingly in the Afghanistan and/or Iraq U.S. military actions), his wife’s left him for another woman; Standrick’s a gay Black man who senses privilege in Bella that she doesn’t recognize in herself. All 3 new friends of Bella come to know each other through her as she goes back home to try to get Yeva to leave, but to no avail. One morning as Bella awakens in the basement she sees Marta having sex with Gordy which angers her no end, even as Marta explains he owns the club (!), will report her to ICE if she doesn’t do his bidding. From this point, it gets a bit confusing for me (but I try to not rewind/watch again, as if I’m seeing this in a theater): ⇒Bella goes home again, along with Marta and Standrick, confronts Gordy and his pal, Donnie (Josh Alscher), Owais suddenly shows up to save the day for his friends, then somehow stepdad and stepdaughter come to an agreement, Gordy again says he just wanted to take care of Bella, she calls him “Dad,” then he kills himself. Basically, those events provide the end. (I think.)⇐
SO WHAT? I wouldn’t have even known Bound* exists had I not received a random email from publicist Justin Cook (North Hollywood, CA) alerting me this 2023 film was to be released in a few domestic (U.S.-Canada) cities last weekend for weeklong runs (likely for awards criteria requirements if such honors might emerge later this year or early 2026) along with streaming rentals on various platforms. It sounded interesting, has solid CCAL support (more on that just below), so I watched it, found it mostly to be an engaging experience (except that last scene as to what was actually going on, contributing to my 3½ stars rating—although the interaction between Bella and Gordy reminded me a bit of the closing lyrics to "A Boy Named Sue" [written by Shel Silverstein, on the 1969 Johnny Cash At San Quentin album]: “I called him my pa and he called me his son / And I come away with a different point of view,” odd as that might seem [yet, there’s plenty of “odd” in this film, so I’ll keep my choice]), admire it for being such an unusual story, even if it is somewhat fragmented. I don’t know why it’s taken from 2023 when Bound was made to finally becoming available now, but it has been in many festivals across those years, with lots of nominations and a few wins. According to Bound’s Wikipedia write-up the film’s events are inspired by childhood traumas of Sadeghian’s life as worked into a script by Woofter; if so, she does a convincing job of bringing those difficulties to the screen, with admirable support from the rest of the cast (with 5 veteran stage actors including Woofter, Carroll, Karimloo, and Mohseni) so I’m glad to find this film now available as it’s obviously a labor of love from the filmmakers as further evidenced by how it took 16 producers—including Woofter, Sadeghian, Karimloo—to get it made. Many aspects are sad to watch, although others are more uplifting, with the overall impact mostly impressive and powerful.
*Not to confused with the same-named Bound (The Wachowskis, 1996), a lesbian drama/romance starring Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon with its own high doses of violence as well as some bondage, although there’s none of the latter in this new film so what this title refers to likely concerns Bella’s connections to her biological family as well as the informal “family” she'll connect with in NYC.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: According to Justin Cook’s email Bound can found for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Fandango at Home, iNDEMAND, and Vubiquity (among others?), yet JustWatch says it’s not yet available for streaming so I guess you need to do your own exploration to see where it exists that would be convenient for you. I started by looking at Amazon where I was pleasantly surprised to find it marked down from $2.99 to $1.49 (cheapest rental I’ve ever encountered) so I just settled in there, didn’t make further explorations. The CCAL hasn’t explored this film much either, with only 19 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, offering 88% positives, all from people I’ve never heard of (Metacritic has nothing so far; IMDb has 31 responses before my addition but no averaging of the results, thus I didn't read these others), so I’ll just arbitrarily cite Alan Ng from Film Threat in support: “The Joy of Bound is the four very distinct characters: the homeless Bella, the PTSD veteran Owais, the tough undocumented immigrant Marta, and the gay designer Standrick. Each character has their own personality, desires, and backstory, which play together perfectly in the coincidental moment that brings them together. [¶] These four disparate characters create a rich tapestry as their stories weave together in unlikely ways. You feel an authentic friendship between them—so much so that they are all willing to risk their lives for one another.” Not everyone of this small group of critics was so enthusiastic, though, as evidenced by Debopriyaa Dutta of High on Films: “ ‘Bound’ wants us to share Bella’s selfish, myopic vision and treat its marginalized characters with the same superficial inclusivity it does. […] Even when reveling in bittersweetness, these messy, impulsive characters smack of inauthenticity, as their actions are disconnected from the flimsy narrative fabric that doesn’t have anything substantial to say. Even when ‘Bound’ intermittently soars and lands on an emotion that rattles one’s core, it plummets right back into shallow waters, embracing an ethos that is painfully skin-deep.” I don’t agree with Ms. Dutta, but to each his/her own opinions. My stance is Bound may not be among 2025’s best but it's worth your consideration, if you'll choose to accept this mission “possible.”
As I approach closure on these reviews I try to come up with a Musical Metaphor that somehow relates to what the cinematic subject has presented to us. After a lot of unsuccessful thought on what to use this time I was inspired (while washing the dinner dishes no less) to use Fiona Apple’s music video of John Lennon’s “Across the Universe” (on The Beatles’ 1970 Let It Be album) in which she sings the song as a connection to the Pleasantville film (Gary Ross, 1998) where twins played by Reese Witherspoon and Toby Maguire find themselves sucked into a 1950s TV sitcom where everything seems perfect in the show’s episodes but there’s much hidden unhappiness and discord among the town’s residents until these later-day teens help bring about liberating changes in this insulated black and white world that slowly adds color as old restrictive attitudes begin to fade away. In Apple's video we’re again in a b&w environment where a gang of young thugs trashes the soda shop behind her as she completely ignores the chaos, at one point doing a 360o turn (camera’s anchored to where she’s sitting so it moves with her giving the illusion of her stability as violence spins around behind her), easily singing “Nothing’s going to change my world.” Not here, for sure!
I’m connecting this to Bella’s situation in Bound where she’s convinced she has control of her life (despite her many setbacks) even as Gordy continues to challenge those assumptions. Unlike in Pleasantville, Apple’s video has no redemption of the guys causing immense damage behind her, nor does anything transform into color (in fact, the only color in this video is in a window smashed in the opening moments), yet she remains calm, convinced all is well as she recites Lennon’s “Jai Guru Dev om,” which roughly translates to “Victory to Guru Dev,” reflecting (to me, at least) how Bella seems to have resolved her difficulties even as more tragedy brings our on-screen story to conclusion. Bound is a unique filmic experience which probably isn’t a firm connection for all potential audience members, but if what I offered about it here intrigues you, I’d certainly encourage you to seek it somewhere, watch and decide for yourself (although if you’re a native of NYC, as with Nonnas which I reviewed last week, you might be put off if you learn that most of those Manhattan scenes were actually shot in New Jersey [which got another putdown last weekend in the “Weekend Update” of SNL’s 50th-season finale, this time from Michael Che instead of usual Colin Jost snark]).
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Just 1 option here for your consideration: IMDb's Five Things to Watch on the week of 5/19/2025.
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