Anh Duong

Occupation

Actor

Appropriate Behavior Review

By Rich Cline

Excellent

With an astute and very funny script, this quirky comedy is packed with entertaining characters and situations that continually catch the audience by surprise. Actor-filmmaker Desiree Akhavan's style is reminiscent of the TV series Girls (a show she has appeared on), as she plays a flawed young woman doing the best to get through her chaotic life in the big city. And there's a clear sense that she knows all to well what she's talking about.

Akhavan plays Shirin, a young woman who feels like life has dealt her a double-whammy: she's bisexual and Persian. Her Iranian parents (Anh Duong and Hooman Majd) prefer to avoid her sexuality, so they never acknowledge the fact that she is still reeling from her breakup with Maxine (Rebecca Henderson). And her brother (Arian Moayed) wants her to be quiet about it so he can marry his fiancee (Justine Cotsonas) before the family peace is disrupted. To get on with her life, Shirin rents a room with hipster roommates in Brooklyn and turns to her best friend Crystal (Halley Feiffer) for support. But without a job, her prospects are limited, so she finds some work through a stoner friend (Scott Adsit) and has a go at teaching filmmaking to 5-year-olds.

There isn't much of an actual plot here, just a series of life experiences that push Shirin one way or another. And all of them are hilarious. Intriguingly, the film builds up a sense of narrative momentum in the flashbacks that trace Shirin's relationship with Maxine, most notably the ways it is affecting her life after the breakup. Akhavan's script is packed with bristly dry comedy that's intelligent and surprisingly resonant. Even as the story touches on important issues like coming out to the family, it never feels preachy simply because it's so truthful.

Continue reading: Appropriate Behavior Review

Appropriate Behaviour Trailer

Sometimes it can be difficult to discover who you truly are. For Shirin (Desiree Akhavan), this is doubly true. Trying to balance the life of an ideal daughter her Iranian parents, keeping up with the social life and intrigue of Brooklyn and coming to terms with her own bisexuality, Shirin has had an awful lot on her mind, and has been out of work for months. As she fails at each of her own chosen lifestyles, Shirin slowly has to learn who she really is, before she can work on who she wants to be.

Continue: Appropriate Behaviour Trailer

Video - Sofia Coppola And Jaime King Among Stars At Valentino Sala Bianca 945 Launch - Part 6

Academy Award winning film director Sofia Coppola and 'Sin City' star Jaime King arrived on the red carpet at the Valentino Sala Bianca 945 launch in New York.

Continue: Video - Sofia Coppola And Jaime King Among Stars At Valentino Sala Bianca 945 Launch - Part 6

Welcome To New York Trailer

Devereaux is well known by the people closest to him as an uninhibited playboy, using his wealth and his high status as a rich French politician to gain him access to a whole world of sexual adventures. Despite the fact that he has a loving wife, nothing stops him in his pursuit of pleasure, but such undisciplined behaviour is always likely to be dangerous. After one spontaneous encounter with a New York hotel maid, he finds himself suddenly accused by authorities of being a rapist. While everyone knows of his womanizing ways, no-one would've suspected such an occurence and Devereaux is left cowering and desperate, and feeling guilty that his lifestyle has led to such injustice. Will a man who has so many big ideas on rescuing the economy manage to hold his high for long enough to protest his innocence? Or has he managed to end his promising career?

Continue: Welcome To New York Trailer