Expanding on a short of the same name released in 2015, Erin Vassilopoulos’ debut feature is a study of identity, masquerading as a psychodrama.
Superior knits together the lives of twin sisters who are long estranged at the beginning of the film. Following the timelessly popular current of Hollywood twin stories, these two women (played by real-life twins) are foils of one another. Vivian (Anamari Mesa) is the reckless on-the-road musician and Marian (Alessandra Mesa) is the anal, hyperattentive housewife. It is the 80s, after all.
When the film begins, its mood notably adopts Mulholland Drive’s trademark oneirism, ornamented with nightfall and headlights. In the same crypticism as the aforementioned film, Vivian runs her husband over with her car, in self-defense, and escapes. She finds herself at a crossroads, and resorts to showing up at her sister’s door whom she hasn’t seen in six years.
Barring the initial awkwardness that comes with retrouvailles, the twins begin to meld into one, and at certain points, become indistinguishable when they take on identity swaps. The plot rides on the invasive flashbulb memories and hallucinations that Vivian has of her husband and the incident, and the tense augments that come about as Marian’s suspicion of her sister mounts.
On the surface, Superior sports a great deal of style and bite, boasting a gorgeous production design that accurately evokes the time: neon orange wall paint, old-school ice cream parlors, automobiles, and more. Even the grainy and obscure cinematography seems to be pulled from this epoch in American film, trying to live up to its neo-noir predecessors like De Palma’s Body Double or even Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct.
However, beyond the decor, the film doesn’t have a whole lot of depth. The plot aspects that it does drive home are overdone tropes of twin arcs that the Olsen twins beat everyone over the head with in the early 2000s when they released their collection of low-budget, feel-good movies for kids. As a viewer, I know that I was meant to feel a connection to Vivian’s trauma with her recurring visions, but I remained unaffected as crucial screen time was written away for tired plot tropes, and the two characters invading each other’s orbits were not privy to any solid character development. The story seemingly would have waxed in richness had the film gone deeper into the complexities of Vivian and Marian, but the full runtime proved the staticness of their characters.
The Verdict
Ultimately, the frustration lies in the fact that the potential to reinvent twin stories is there, and is even egged on by the talent and chemistry that the Mesa sisters have. Unfortunately, the film plays it safe and relies more so on the aesthetic to carry it through to the finish line.
Superior seems like a very long, short film and lacks the appropriate narrative trials and tribulations into which a feature-length script should creatively venture.
Rating: 4/10
Words by Ariel Kling
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