- Morning Mourning follows two outrageously odd sisters, Pearl and Zelda, as they mourn their mother's death at Greenwood Cemetery. Rating the lives of her deceased lady neighbors on the level of sexism they experienced in their day, the girls distract themselves from the grief of their mother's passing through morbid humor and satirical commentary.
- Morning Mourning follows two outrageously odd sisters, Pearl and Zelda, as they mourn their mother's death at Greenwood Cemetery. Rating the lives of her deceased lady neighbors on the level of sexism they experienced in their day, the girls distract themselves from the grief of their mother's passing through morbid humor and satirical commentary.
Zelda wears a tracksuit for both style and function. Arguably too comfortable in her own skin, the eldest sister encompasses the aura of an ancient heirloom. That being said, that heirloom might be a dusty coffee table or something else like that. She doesn't speak unless what she says is necessary or ironic. Pearl, on the other hand, exudes the nature of a literal pearl and the clam who owns it. The younger sister of the team, she packs a punch and will actually punch you on the off chance you kneel down far enough to catch her swing. She's insecure in her surroundings, but not in her sense of self. This is all masked by a thick layer of caffeine and second hand confidence.
The girls arrive at the cemetery for the first time, a year after their mothers passing. The journey to the cemetery was under the veil of torrential downpour, so they are sopping wet. They are met with the cemetery security guard. This man could be nice, could be mean or could just be in the Italian Mob. He runs the booth at the entrance of the cemetery, handing out pamphlets chronicling the famous and dead Greenwood residents. Man is not only rude, he's also suspicious! Cross examining the girls while simultaneously insulting them, Man leaves them with more questions than answers. We can't tell if he actually works at the stand or killed the man who used to, but we do know that he's not good at either job.
They continue through the cemetery to find their mother's grave. Greenwood is huge, sporting rolling hills of the dead. Hi dead! They pour out some seltzer for the fallen and continue their journey to the tune of some punk rock instrumentals, matching their all black and almost witchy exteriors. They find their mothers grave, leave tokens of their love for her: a fake crow and some cacti. Suddenly mom appears! Mom comes and goes as a ghost, mirage or maybe a daydream. It's the year anniversary of her death and she's just as fun dead as she was alive. Mom may have a cold body but has the warmest of souls: looking after her daughters, finishing their sentences and (at some points) annoying the shit out of them. She was a Bay Ridge Brooklyn Mom: equal parks funky and old school. Her daughters mimic the same aesthetic confusion, landing in no clear era other than the timeless world of the cemetery. We're not sure if she has found peace with her passing or doesn't want to leave the girls but regardless, she is here.
Pearl and Zelda don't know how to mourn her and frankly, they don't want to. Pearl has an idea: a game to distract themselves. They go around the cemetery, rating the deceased woman (on a scale of 1-10) on the level of sexism they experienced by the year they died. Okay, TOPICAL! They continue through the cemetery playing their game while simultaneously consuming the idea of their mothers passing and eventually making peace with it and death as a whole.
They meet one more character, Boy. Boy might be god but that would be disappointing, we were hoping god was a woman. Boy is the romantic subplot that could've happened, but doesn't. We meet him perched up in a tree, about to plunge our film into a Bechdel Test fail. He's riddled with mystery and armed with pick up lines. So... he's gorgeous. He is writing poems with a cig hanging out of his perfect mouth. The girls approach him to see what he's about and if they should kiss him. They decide against it, leaving boy in a potential romantic twist that will NEVER see the light of day. They continue on and out of the cemetery.
As the girls leave, Mom does too. Pearl and Zelda re-enter their human-Brooklyn lives and Mom moves on to whatever is after all of this shit. Ah, peace?
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