Normal

Adele Tullis' formally straightforward and aesthetically compelling documentary film deals with rigid gender roles and the uncritical submission to the dictates of (hetero)normativity. The director focuses her camera on everyday activities, rituals, and scenes, using contrasting image and sound montages to make some situations appear strange. In long, calm shots, she shows girls being made up to look like princesses, a father accompanying his son to a motorcycle race, and screaming teenage girls having their picture taken with their idolized YouTube star. She shows boys playing first-person shooter and paintball games, follows the photo shoot of a newlywed couple, shows excessive bachelorette parties, films a course designed to teach young men how to become alpha males, and one in which women learn how to best serve their husbands in marriage. Tulli remains consistently observant, almost detached. In the end, however, the uncommented sequence of these countless stereotypical actions does contain a commentary.