Signature Move
Jennifer Reeder's Signature Move plays like a cross-cultural cross between Netflix's GLOW and Rose Troche's Go Fish, a key film in the New Queer Cinema movement. Zaynab (co-writer Fawzia Mirza), a Chicago lawyer of Pakistani descent, lives with her widowed mother, Parveen (Bollywood star Shabana Azmi), the only person in her orbit who doesn't know she's gay. While Zaynab spends her days practicing immigration law, learning how to wrestle like a luchador, and zipping around on her moped, Parveen, a shut-in, spends hers watching Pakistani soap operas and praying that Zaynab will meet a nice Muslim man and settles down. Instead she meets Alma (Sari Sanchez), a pretty Jewish-Latina bookstore owner. Alma is also the daughter of a former Mexican wrestler (Charin Alvarez) to whom she tells everything (it's worth noting that there are no white men in this film, and you aren't likely to miss them). Though Alma swears she isn't looking for a relationship, the two start spending all of their time together. Zaynab even introduces her to Parveen, but her refusal to come out drives a wedge between the women. If the more experienced Azmi nearly steals the spotlight from the lead actresses, Reeder finds the perfect note on which to end.
by Kathy Fennessy