Hollywood has a way of telling women over 40 that their best days are behind them. In Marchelle Bradanini and Emily Alpren’s comedic short, Floored, one woman refuses to take that news lying down — well, technically, she takes it lying down on a yoga mat.
Eleanor Williams (Trilby Glover) is a BAFTA-winning actress who wakes up one morning feeling simply like a mother over 40. At breakfast, she stares into the void, says hi to her kids as they head off to school, and hands the baby off to the nanny. She scrolls through Instagram, staring at the model her film-producer husband, Steven (Ben Geurens), plans to cast instead of her. In hopes of reinvigorating her life, Eleanor brings in Marla (Sheila Carrasco), a Westside pelvic floor guru, to help her get back to life — and to help with her pelvic floor.
“In hopes of reinvigorating her life, Eleanor brings in…a Westside pelvic floor guru, to help her get back to life — and to help with her pelvic floor.”
Undeterred, Eleanor invites her fellow “lorazepammed” friends over for the session, including Jane (Mara Wilson) and Daisy (Jocelyn DeBoer). Disguised as an afternoon of cheese board and crisp chardonnay, the session soon turns into something completely different. Marla guides the group through the work on their pelvic floors and into a session that uncovers a suppressed rage and pain each of these women has been carrying alone. For Eleanor, it’s a moment to make a bold change in her life.
For directors Marchelle Bradanini and Emily Alpren, Floored is a study in contrasts. They say their story was born from the brutal isolation they experienced after childbirth. The two met “bleary-eyed” with their three-month-old babies in a Hollywood baby-and-me class, and the film is a love letter to the sisterhood that got them through the muck and mire of modern parenting. It’s also an examination of the loss of identity that comes with motherhood and the lengths affluent women will go to, from red light therapies to Westside healers and charlatans, to find answers.
Running at ten minutes, Floored sets an unusual tone, as Bradanini and Alpren place a retro aesthetic in a modern world of social media. It’s a world inhabited by the false presences of modern life, in contrast to the emptiness Eleanor feels. The filmmakers masterfully convey those empty emotions in a bright, clean, pastel world, which, of course, makes quite a comedic contrast in the end.
"…one woman refuses to take that news lying down..."
