DVD Review: She Must Be Seeing Things

She Must Be Seeing Things tells the story of a relationship between two women, one of whom suspects the other of infidelity. It stars Sheila Dabney as Agatha and Lois Weaver as Jo. When the film opens, Jo is leaving town for a couple of days and has left a note for Agatha, asking her to get her mail. Agatha is a more organized person than Jo, and while at Jo’s apartment she begins straightening out her bookshelves. In the process she discovers a couple of Polaroid photos and then Jo’s diary, which details her relationships with men. At first, Agatha laughs it off, believing it to be something from Jo’s school days. But soon it is clear that she is distrustful of Jo now, suspicious.

And perhaps she has a reason to be, for we see a man asking Jo out to dinner, and Jo accepting. After being asked to spend the night with him, Jo has a conversation with herself over whether or not she should sleep with him. While she decides not to, she does give the man her phone number. So it’s not like Agatha’s suspicions are completely unfounded.

The film takes on a strange, dark tone as Agatha reads Jo’s diary. It clearly becomes an obsession for her, as she even takes the diary to work, pulling it out to read after a meeting. By the way, that meeting scene is the only one that doesn’t quite ring true. Something about it seems odd.

It is interesting that when the film introduces and establishes both characters, it is separately, not with them together. This creates a tension then for that moment when Jo does finally arrive home, while Agatha readies herself upstairs. Jo has no idea what Agatha suspects, even after seeing how she has straightened out all her books and after Agatha has dropped hints. Agatha’s jealousy and suspicions even lead her to believe she sees Jo making out with a man on the street. Jo works as a film director, and her current project, a movie about Catalina and involving nuns, sort of functions as Jo’s fantasy world, especially as we don’t often see the film crew or equipment.

This film really drew me in. Some of it is funny, but there is a dark, obsessive and even mysterious vibe to it as well. It does play a bit with the butch/femme dynamic. There is a scene where Agatha gives Jo lingerie, who then models it for her, Agatha taking on a more traditionally masculine role, Jo a feminine one. This leads Jo to ask, “So tell me, do you really want a cock?” Agatha replies, “Sometimes, maybe.” This is a sweet, funny and sexy scene. There is another funny scene when Agatha goes to a sex shop to buy a dildo. The look on the clerk’s face while she gets a sex doll for a male customer is perfect.

This film also has a really well choreographed shot on the beach, as Agatha walks onto the beach and the camera continues to pan right, going past her, catching Jo as she moves off right, then Agatha again in the distance, and Jo again as she moves back toward Agatha. It’s interesting how the shot separates them, even as they move together, and brings them together, even as they first move away from each other. And it leads to a delightful bit of bondage play in public. It’s sweet, until Agatha asks Jo if men ever did that to her. Jo’s innocent admission that one man did leads Agatha straight back to the diary. What’s wonderful is that even as the suspicion and jealousy play with Agatha’s perception, it is clear that the relationship is strong and that these two do love each other.

Special Features

The DVD includes Inside Out, a 1978 short film by Sheila McLaughlin, starring Lizzie Borden, Mary Rattray and Merien Soto. It’s approximately a half hour long, and is in black and white. It’s a silent film, which at first seems odd because the early shots are close-ups of a girl talking, leaving me feeling that the sound is missing. The second segment shows children swinging a stick at a piñata, which at times seems out of reach and is sometimes out of frame. The third segment shows two people crouching, as if about to start a race.

The DVD also includes Sheila McLaughlin in conversation with Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Heinz Emigholz, an interview that was filmed in December of 2012. Sheila talks about Inside Out, and the anti-narrative stance that filmmakers at that time took. She talks a bit about Los Angeles, and why she never wanted to move there. And of course she talks about She Must Be Seeing Things, and about the initial reactions to the film.

She Must Be Seeing Things was written and directed by Sheila McLaughlin. It was released on DVD on June 2, 2015 through First Run Features.