Gas Money
Suburban Stories
•
02-Dec-2021
While making a documentary about the female orgasm, a filmmaker tries to get her conservative parents to see her side of her own sexual explorations. Allison Bunce directs “Gas Money,” a provocatively funny dissection of repressive sexual standards and the resulting shame and emotional wreckage. Conor and her hipster film crew pile into the suburban home of her traditional parents. Her genial mother has prepared a bowl of pretzels and M&M’s, to which there are no takers, “I’m gluten free…and vegan,” says the sound woman. Once the cameras roll, Conor dives right into a question about the extreme responses her parents had to her early sexual awakenings. (She was forced to wear diapers after being caught masturbating, and her parents convinced her that they could monitor her dreams on a television set). While the uncomfortable line of questions rankles her parents, the stoic father tries to change the subject to money, specifically who’s funding this project. (A hint lies in a revealing interruption earlier). The comedy is tense and cringey, but within Conor’s prickly tactics are perfectly valid arguments. Director: Allison Bunce. Cast: Chelsea Lopez, Tricia Roscoe, David Butcher, Lisa Cole, David Roud, Rob Sperry-Fromm. DP: Al Webster. Art Director: Anne Gormley. Sound: Cem Dursun. Gaffer: Richard Jackson. Editor: Allison Bunce. Producer: Allison Bunce.
Up Next in Suburban Stories
-
Lady of the House
A once promising opera singer finds herself years later as a stay-at-home mom with two young boys. She’s overwhelmed and overworked and there’s a distant look in her eyes. Life (or one day) rolls on, hurtling down the track faster than she can keep up. Her kids are perpetually crying or demanding...
-
Nomad
We’ve been following the Chicago filmmaker Bradley Bischoff for several years. His previous film, "Where the Buffalo Roam" (2013) was a subtly touching story of two brothers on their last night together in the suburbs. In "Nomad," the lead character is a little older, a little more established, b...
-
Where the Buffalo Roam
Twenty-four year old Brad commemorates what seems to be his last night in the suburbs alongside his older brother Tyler, who is on the brink of turning thirty and still living at home. The film extends past the poetic experimentation of Bischoff's previous work, "Eyelids" and "For My Mick Jagger,...