The Unspoken Emotions Beneath the Surface
The film directed by Anja Marquardt is not about the noise; it is about the quiet, the stillness, and the haunting nature of introspection. Marquardt presents the fragile life of Ronah (Brooke Bloom), a sexual surrogate, and the job that brings Ronah closer to the complexities of human intimacy. There is, however, an emotional intimacy that remains unfulfilled. The title alludes to the song by Joy Division, and it is fitting because to everyone, Ronah’s exterior is calm, but within is a storm of losing control.
She’s Lost Control was the topic of conversation not for superficial provocation but for bold psychological filmmaking. For many, especially young professionals, it was an accurate and sensitive portrayal of urban loneliness.
A Story of Connection Without Contact
The essence of the film is Ronah, a therapist whose clients come to her for help with intimacy. The nature of her work requires her to navigate complex emotional and physical spheres with an empathetic precision that is, however, devoid of attachment. When a new client, Johnny (Marc Menchaca), enters the picture, the complex web of disengaged attachment becomes problematic.
Challenging Ronah’s professional discipline, Johnny’s unpredictable character poses a challenge. Their meetings become fraught, laden with burdensome and awkward silences, filled with unexamined and unfocused glances. Part of the beauty of She’s Lost Control is found in such restraint, in the silences that speak of vulnerability, fear, and a desperate desire for connection.
Brooke Bloom: Life Imitates Art
Brooke Bloom’s performance feels lived, rather than executed. While she had mostly minor television roles before the film, she had an acting style that thrived on emotional realism in film. In Ronah’s world, the unscripted elements of her own existence — balancing the uncertainty of a career, emotional honesty, and the quiet struggle of finding meaning in her craft — returned as a resonant echo.
In her interviews, Bloom said she prepared for the role by studying intimacy therapists. What stood out to her more than the physicality of the role was the emotional labor and the interplay of empathy that heals and hurts. This understanding formed the essence of her performance, which is characterized by a weighty tension. You can see it in her eyes — she is suffering. She is caring and consumed by the burdens of others.
The City as a Character
The film is set in New York City, and as far as I can tell, New York is not just a backdrop for this film — it is another silent character. Endless apartments, blurred subway windows, muted noises of life always in motion — they all contribute to the certainty that, even in a city of people, one can be profoundly alone.
Anja Marquardt employs minimalism to express the violation that loneliness imposes in this age of the digital. There are no spectacular break downs, no forbidable proclamations — just the quiet disintegration of the silent, the sort that one can only notice if they are truly watching.
When Boundaries Start to Fade
The emotional and at the same time physical tension of the two main and simply titled Ronah and Johnny is the primary pivot point in the film. Their evolving dynamic is a reflection of how in real life, relationships, be they personal or professional, may simply float across borders. The story is neither romance nor transgression, it is simply the meeting of two vulnerabilities.
Marc Menchaca is well known for the role in Ozark and The Sinner and in this film is set to make an unpredictable counter point to his role, harmonizing greatly with Bloom. The real life him is often a complex man emotionally and troubled, a wrestling emotionally man, which makes this character’s uncertainty all the more plausible.
The discomfort between Bloom and Menchaca lacks scripted emotions. Everything seems to be the result of improvisation, and it seems that these characters are in constant negotiation about how much of themselves should be unmasked and how much should be hidden.
Themes That Transcend the Story
At its core, She’s Lost Control is about human disconnection. Although modernity should facilitate connections, it paradoxically makes it more challenging. Ronah’s story is one of exhausted empathy and the silencing of oneself while helping others.
There’s also the unarticulated imbalance of a woman’s emotional labor. Director Marquardt said she attempted to make a film “about care, boundaries, and identity — not about scandal.”
Successful Choices
The cinematography and the intentionality of it. Close-up shots of faces and gestures hang in the air to foster tension. The muted color of the film is dominated by detachment and isolation. The camera’s pace mirrors the emotional collapse of the characters, refusing to rapidly move in a way that suggests they are emotionally collapsed.
The sound design merits commendation as well. The low city life, soft breathing, and prominent use of silence during key scenes contribute to the film’s rawness and realism.
The Road Less Talked About: Behind the Scenes
Despite the small independent budget, the film She’s Lost Control is successful on many accounts. As Brooke Bloom noted in an interview, the use of real apartments during shooting rather than renting sets for the film helped to preserve its authenticity. The film’s emotional honesty came from the use of intimacy coordinators and psychological consultants on set during filming.
It is intriguing that the screenwriter chose to revise the script numerous times to remove the excesses in the physical scenes, opting instead to use emotional narrative as the driving force. Marquardt’s guiding principle in the overall aesthetics of the film was to suggest that less was more.
Critics from the Berlin and SXSW festivals appreciated the film’s audacity to remain quiet in a noisy age of cinema. There was no dependence on spectacle; it was the unadorned truth.
When the Curtain Falls
Ronah’s story, by the end, is a story of recognition rather than sadness. We’ve all been Ronah, at one time or another, trying to help others while holding it together, silently falling apart.
She’s Lost Control reflects contemporary loneliness, in which connection resembles a transaction and love embodies an exercise in boundaries. Brooke Bloom, alongside Marquardt’s direction, which is profoundly compassionate, elevates this film beyond a simple dramatic narrative. It becomes an emotional record of our pursuit of affection in an increasingly frigid world.
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