Earlier this year, I found myself on the last day of the Sundance Film Festival wondering how to close out my festival experience. It had been a festival bursting with visceral, exhilarating, and emotionally taxing selections, so as I waffled on which film to choose for my “grand finale,” my best option became abundantly clear: something stress-free. Marion Hill’s sumptuous drama, Ma Belle, My Beauty, was that relaxant: that glass of cold white wine after a hot, exhausting day. And if this film just so happened to be screening as part of SXSW Online as well, hey – why not? It’s hard saying no to another glass.

The NEXT category premiering (and Audience Award winning) feature debut from Hill surfaces again at SXSW in the Festival Favorites category. It fits nicely into a sub-genre of films I like to call “hot people in paradise.” Think Luca Guadagino’s A Bigger Splash (2015), or François Ozon’s Swimming Pool (2003) and you will know exactly which flavour of film I am referring to. Unlike these examples, though, Ma Belle, My Beauty doesn’t hide a sinister element under its sunbaked, shimmering exterior. There are no seething vendettas, no devious machinations – just good-looking people trying to figure out themselves and how they fit together with others. Just ~vibes~, if you will.

Idella Johnson plays Bertie, a New Orleans transplant who lives with her French boyfriend, Fred (Lucien Guignard), at Fred’s parents’ idealistic country home in the South of France. Bertie has fallen into a bit of a funk because her and Fred’s music careers haven’t taken off like she had hoped, and so Fred brings into the situation the enigmatic Lane (Hannah Pepper), with whom both he and Bertie once shared a polyamorous relationship. What sounds like the set-up for some high melodrama never really goes there, though. Fred actually ends up taking a backseat to the whole situation, and while Bertie and Lane do dance a bit of will-they-won’t-they routine, both (particularly Bertie) approach their feelings very pragmatically.

A film like this isn’t trying to stir the pot or nudge its characters towards heightened emotions or drastic decisions; Hill is much more content in establishing a scenario and characters that feel authentic and lived-in, and letting these characters fold and pour over each other in ways that feel natural. Johnson and Pepper embody this fully with their warm chemistry and a lot of great acting that is done in the eyes – in cheeky side-glances and flirtatious flits of the eyelashes. In an interview with the Observer, Johnson and Hill both attest to the amount of work that went towards character building with Hill, and this can be felt in just how comfortable you feel with the characters right from the start – they are real, nuanced people.

What’s more, this is a film about queer, poly people that isn’t constantly trying to “introduce” them as novel concepts. Bertie and Lane aren’t struggling with their sexualities, and the script doesn’t struggle to humanize their sexual preferences; both Bertie and Lane own their sexualities, are intimate, have their minor quarrels and jealousies, and then it’s back to more wine. This is a “hangout” film through and through, with plot and sensationalism often taking a backseat to moments of great food, drink, and conversation. The downside to this stylistic decision is that some scenes end up falling flat and feeling a little throw-away, but Hill’s commitment to a languid, casual tone is still consistently intoxicating.

Ma Belle, My Beauty isn’t an invigorating or particularly challenging picture, but it puts you in an unmistakable sense of ease and it invites repeat comfort viewings – and that says a lot. Everything and everyone is just so amicable, and the respect between those involved feels palpable, to the point where dishing out any judgment towards this feels invasive and inappropriate. Put down the review and grab yourself another glass.

SXSW 2021 | "Ma Belle, My Beauty"; Spill the Wine, Dig That Girl