For a film that opens with a moment of ecstasy, Hala is quite the grim affair. Barely a smile is cracked in its lean hour-and-a-half runtime; most conversations are coated with impatience, resentment and repression. Anytime the teenage Hala dares to express her true emotions, it is considered a sign of weakness. The film is, in many ways, an accurate depiction of growing up in a South Asian household.Featuring a stunning lead performance by Geraldine Viswanathan, whom you might remember for her outstanding turn in the recent comedy Blockers, Hala — the character and the film’s — disarming silences effectively hide a warm and vibrant soul. You get the sense that Hala used to be a bright young girl — she still is, deep down — but years of cohabitation with her emotionally distant Pakistani immigrant parents, speaking but not really conversing, have robbed her of any desire to connect with them, and indeed, with anyone else.Uneducated and inexperienced in this regard, she acts in unusual ways; her disconnect with her real emotions manifests in outward sexual behaviour, and public meltdowns.
