The relationships between people and animals are mutually helpful. Feeding a pet is a cause to get off the bed within the morning; taking them out is an excuse to dress, go exterior, and get some solar. And though she didn’t ask for the accountability, caring for a candy, fluffy white rabbit with monumental eyes is strictly what the protagonist of Katarina Zhu’s “Bunnylovr” wants.
Rebecca (Zhu) is having what you would possibly name a quarter-life disaster. Almost friendless and struggling to pay lease, she dietary supplements her revenue as a private assistant with the cash she makes chatting with guys and posting footage of her ft on a camming web site. It’s certainly one of her purchasers who sends her the rabbit, truly; it’s a bizarre factor to do, and given the violent arc tales about intercourse work usually absorb media, the anticipation is sickening every time Rebecca activates her webcam to speak with John (Austin Amelio). His curiosity in rabbits does appear to be…uncommon.
However “Bunnylovr” isn’t the edgy thriller it suggests it’d develop into. Zhu tacitly acknowledges this stress late within the story, when Rebecca goes on an ill-advised date to a horror movie: The person’s hand creeps up Rebecca’s thigh as a girl screams and pleads for assistance on the soundtrack, unseen however disturbing to listen to. Rebecca, in the meantime, stares spellbound on the display screen, as if pondering her destiny if she continues down this self-destructive path. She then will get up and runs out of the theater, as a result of this isn’t that sort of film.
To be clear, there’s one upsetting scene involving the bunny, who Rebecca names Milk. But it surely’s extra of a turning level for Rebecca’s character than it’s for the kind of movie we’re watching. Whereas Rebecca does bear a (quiet) transformation, “Bunnylovr” stays delicate all through, utilizing its protagonist as a stand-in for city alienation and internet-age loneliness writ giant. As Rebecca, Zhu is hesitant and indecisive. She has nowhere to be, however is at all times late anyway. She seems to be like she has one thing to say, however when she does begin speaking, she anxiously fumbles, saying an excessive amount of and nothing on the identical time.
Rebecca does have one IRL good friend, a privileged painter named Bella (Rachel Sennott) who doesn’t even appear to love her that a lot. Bella’s entitlement and bitchy feedback (Sennott excels at bitchy feedback) give “Bunnylovr” a welcome imply streak, in addition to most of its comedy. Bella isn’t a complete villain — that function is saved for callous fuckboy Carter (Jack Kilmer). However she’s not individual both, and the friction of their friendship is crucial to giving the aimless Rebecca some motivation as she spirals in direction of a private collapse.
One other supply of drama is Rebecca’s absentee father William (Perry Yung), with whom she reunites following an extended interval of estrangement after operating into him on the road. A deadbeat dad with a playing drawback and a library of dubbed VHS porn, William is hardly a mannequin dad or mum. However he’s an apologetic one, and he makes an effort to get to know Rebecca earlier than it’s too late. She’s extra like her dad than both of them would care to acknowledge, nonetheless, and she or he withdraws from him every time her emotions get too intense and complicated. The identical is true for John, who appears to be a good sufficient man — apart from the entire rabbit-fetish factor, after all.
William does have one redeeming high quality: A black cat that retains him firm when his life choices depart him on their lonesome in his junky bachelor house. (Once more, father and daughter are extra alike than they assume.) He loves the cat, and reveals Rebecca an image of it on his cellphone. Rebecca seems to be and smiles politely. She doesn’t inform him about Milk. These nuanced emotional beats are the place “Bunnylovr” shines.
Zhu locations Rebecca and her story throughout the particular cross-cultural milieu of rising up Chinese language-American in New York Metropolis, the place she will hang around with a gaggle of aged Asian males betting on mahjong within the park and cliques of wealthy children stroking one another’s egos at an artwork opening inside minutes of one another. The dialogue is naturalistic, Charli XCX performs a bit too loud on the soundtrack, and the camerawork is filled with shaky hand-held closeups — all predictable strikes for a New York indie like this one.
However whereas Zhu creates a world that feels empathetic and lived in, Rebecca as a personality doesn’t give the viewer a lot to work with. She has no pursuits, no ambitions, no hobbies. Her house is obvious white, with nothing on the partitions.
She’s so unmoored that the timeline drifts alongside along with her; a significant life occasion unfolds over what looks like months, just for one other character to make reference to their actions “final week.”
Whereas the understated strategy Zhu brings to her debut function is genuine, it additionally underplays even large, dramatic developments in Rebecca’s life. The result’s a tiny factor you possibly can maintain within the palm of your hand, delicate and delicate and delicate.
Grade: B-
“Bunnylovr” premiered on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant. It’s at the moment searching for U.S. distribution.
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