Appropriate Behaviour (2014) is a British comedy film, written and directed by Desiree Akhavan, the film stars Akhavan as Shirin, a bisexual Persian American woman in hipster Brooklyn struggling to rebuild her life after breaking up with her girlfriend. Shirin is struggling to be an ideal Persian daughter (of well-to-do expats), a politically correct bisexual, and a hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities.
Hard to believe she was voted ugliest person at Horace Mann (she commuted from Rockland County). This is a woman who has electric beauty. I'm always fascinated by young women directors who have the courage to act in their own films. Akhavan is candid about sex, and she has a great scene when a three-way she’s involved in after a couple pick her up in a bar goes weirdly wrong because the man suspects his partner is into her in ways he doesn’t like. There is also a great moment when she is given self-esteem coaching by the assistant in a lingerie store who says she deserves a great bra: “Just because your breasts are small, it doesn’t mean they’re not legitimate.” Akhavan has a loopy lampooning spirit, ultimately, and at one point she clocks the deadpan tone of her own film when Shirin lambasts one of her dates, "What's up with your passive disinterest in everything? What happened at Wesleyan that did this to you?"
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