Bloomington

Bloomington 2010

       

            Bloomington, a tale of sordid, Sapphic love between a psychology professor and an undergraduate student, is Fernanda Cardoso’s first full-length feature film.  Professor Catherine Stark (Allison McAtee) is a cougar on the prowl, infamous throughout the university for her lesbian liaisons with her students, and is generally feared by the student body a bastion of intimidation—some students even believe her to be a vampire.  Her newest conquest is Jackie Kirk (Sarah Stouffer), a doe-eyed, former child television star turned college freshman. The plot details the development and rapid decline of their relationship, as Jackie leaves school to return to acting, while Professor Stark gets the ax after the administration discovers her scandalous affair.

      Bloomington promises audiences another take on the sexy student-teacher dynamic, but it ultimately disappoints because the narrative lacks coherence, which is perhaps due to the remarkably amateurish editing of the film’s scenes.  When time is of the essence for the sustainability of intimate relationships, and when such emphasis is placed on the sustainability of intimate relationships, and when such emphasis is placed on the generational differences between Jackie and Catherine in particular, it becomes difficult to comprehend the intensity and depth of their relationship. In other words, the narrative disconnect that occurs as a result of shoddy editing makes it impossible to believe that the two have a serious, intimate relationship, which makes it impossible, in turn, to sense the dramatic sincerity of the relationship’s dissolution.(cherrygrrl.com/movie-review-bloomington)