Review of Touchy Feely (2013) by Nick O — 17 Aug 2013

A massage therapist who grows a sudden aversion to touch. Lynn Shelton has made small-time magic with simpler. See her previous two films "Humpday" and "Your Sister's Sister" for dramedy (shit word, but it fits) that's heart-on-sleeve and true, from a gifted writer-director who uses gentle ambience and characters you feel for to get the emotion of her work to stick with you. She believes in touch. And I believe in "Touchy Feely", a solid third feature from Shelton yet that lacks the grounded control of "Humpday" and "YSS". "Touchy Feely" is REALLY specific, a movie I saw on VOD I can't IMAGINE actually watching with an audience. Its quirk is that it lacks quirk. Except it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's so searching and spacey it doesn't quite know WHAT to take itself as.

A slim 88 minute meditation that feels searching without going anywhere, the power in "Touchy Feely" -- and also it's saving grace -- is how it personal it feels; basically an uninterrupted set of crammed, overlapping and unfinished vignettes, like a mixtape consisting strictly of nine-minute slices of shoegaze from different experimental bands. Shelton wrote, directed and edited "Touchy Feely" herself. That something born from a bedroom on an early morning or late night -- or at least shifts tone like it was -- could seem so agreeable let alone welcoming is to the credit of Shelton. "Touchy Feely" may not always meet the potential of its high concept and cast, but you root for it.