AWOL
Dir: Deb Shoval | 82 mins | USA
Raised in a depressed small town in rural Pennsylvania, 19-year-old Joey (Lola Kirke) has few career prospects beyond scooping ice cream. For Joey, the best way out of her aimless small town life seems to be joining the Army -- a move that her mother (Dale Soules of OINTB) desperately wants. But after falling for a spitfire housewife from the wrong side of the tracks, Joey’s resolve to escape her small town life begins to falter.
Rayna (UnREAL’s Breeda ...
AWOL
Dir: Deb Shoval | 82 mins | USA
Raised in a depressed small town in rural Pennsylvania, 19-year-old Joey (Lola Kirke) has few career prospects beyond scooping ice cream. For Joey, the best way out of her aimless small town life seems to be joining the Army -- a move that her mother (Dale Soules of OINTB) desperately wants. But after falling for a spitfire housewife from the wrong side of the tracks, Joey’s resolve to escape her small town life begins to falter.
Rayna (UnREAL’s Breeda Wool) has to keep her steamy affair with Joey secret, not just from the rest of the town, but also from her long-haul trucker husband. Joey is torn between sticking around town working menial jobs so she can stay close to Rayna, and joining the Army so that after her three-year tour she can offer Rayna and her kids a better life away from rural poverty and an unhappy marriage. But Rayna isn’t so sure she can keep the flame burning while Joey is serving overseas -- leaving Joey with a crushing choice.
Director Deb Shoval, who grew up in a Pennsylvania coal town, has said that the the story for the film was inspired by her conversations with lesbian soldiers who actually went AWOL. Both Kirke and Wool deliver impressive performances, and the film captures both the beauty and ugliness of small town life across wild parties, run-down trailers, and empty countryside.
