There has always been a search for something in the films of Pete Ohs, usually modest adventures in scale, but grand in their existential concerns. In his debut “Everything Beautiful is Far Away,“ Joseph Cross and Julia Garner wandered across the desert to find a sense of purpose as they looked for a lake and the equally playful but far less innocent “Jethica” saw a young woman (Callie Hernandez) run away to the ends of the earth only for her past to literally catch up with her in the form of a stalker. His last film “Love and Work” imagined what was left after having a profession was outlawed. But no hero of Ohs’ so far has looked as lost at the start as Yvonne (Zoe Chao) in his latest “The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick,” completely inconsolable after the sudden death of her beloved dog Cherry. Like the director’s previous odysseys, it isn’t all that far physically for Yvonne to find somewhere to clear her head when her friend Camille (Hernandez in a welcome reunion) invites her over to stay at her house for a few days to grieve, but there’s a much longer and stranger journey ahead to locate actual peace of mind.
It may be Yvonne who enters the film deeply shaken, but it’s audiences that are likely to exit the simmering satiric horror film feeling that way when Ohs provocatively probes where people find their personal contentment, even questioning those who have come to the theater to find refuge in his work. Opening the film with a quote from Baz Luhrmann (“A life lived in fear is a life half-lived”) that could be taken either as a pretentious and empty platitude or a wise adage, there’s an instantly queasy sensation of not being sure to dismiss it entirely or give into its cheesy charm that puts you in the shoes of Yvonne when she arrives at Camille’s house. Yvonne isn’t the only guest as she learns her friend has also invited her hipster friends Isaac (Jeremy O. Harris) and his partner A.J. (James Cusati-Moyer), who are no mere visitors when Camille has formed a “biodynamic relationship” with the two in which each serve a purpose central to their survival. Isaac, a real estate agent, has found them shelter and A.J. does all the cooking, and it isn’t only the macrobiotic soup that the latter serves up that starts to make Yvonne nauseous, but the whole idea of this cult-like arrangement as the trio speaks of moving far away from society and enjoy the pleasures of eating freshly picked zucchini they can grab at a roadside stand in suspiciously overenthusiastic terms.
Camille, Isaac and A.J. may have found the perfect home for themselves, but it’s the last place Yvonne wants to be as she’s just trying to get over the death of her pet, only more worn down by the pseudointellectual posturing suddenly around her and miffed that Camille lets slip that the dog has died to Isaac and A.J., who pepper her with questions about it. A tick bite that grows to look worse and worse adds to Yvonne’s misery, but while she is quick to say no to a homeopathic cure that A.J. wants to make up on the spot, she becomes more susceptible to hearing out alternatives to the conventional wisdom she’s long leaned on when there are no easy answers for what ails her in any respect.
There’s an extra eeriness to “The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick” when it seems expediency and convenience supersede what is known to be right in shaping people’s beliefs in any realm and Yvonne’s desperation to find a straightforward remedy for her pain leads her to start accepting ideas well off the beaten path. It may not yield the healthiest results for her, but the production appears to be blessed by its radical thinkers, including the actors who are all credited as co-writers. Their performances become just a part of building their characters as Ohs uses a blank farmhouse with sterile white walls to project any color he’d like onto them as a reflection of their mood, and a brilliant score from Isabella Summers twists organic sounds from the remote setting into rhythm that can suggest either being one with nature or hopelessly out of step. As Yvonne starts to blend in with her surroundings, Ohs’ latest works stands out when it recognizes how much easier it is to give in than resist social forces that have little behind the certitude behind which they’re being presented yet have a way of getting under the skin in uncertain times.
“The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick” will screen again at SXSW at the Alamo South Lamar 9 on March 11th at 11 am and March 15th at 5:30 pm.