Review of Loves Her Gun (2013) by Matthew S — 15 Jun 2015

Geoff Marslett's starts out as a deceptively loose and almost gentle character study of a young woman who is viciously assaulted and makes a last minute decision to escape the urban industrial surroundings of her shared apartment in Brooklyn.

She joins up with some newly met members of a band as they tour their way back home to Austin. What begins as an almost casual but interesting study of a wounded human trying to reconnect begins to shift.

It is to Marslett's credit that this shift is achieved by gradually pulling us and his movie into a tighter focus. It is interesting how the film evolves into one of the more careful examinations of fear, trauma and the ways in which we try to negotiate our way past them.

As the credits roll, I realized that LOVES HER GUN is something far more potent. This is an excellent depiction of not only our culture of threat, fear and danger for women -- but an all too realistic examination of a sort of "societal-knee-jerk" reaction to immediately jump to self-defense instead of actually help the victim with the actual core of the problem.

All the more potent, the film does not hold your hand or push into some trite conclusion. This film will haunt you long after you see it. Highly recommended.