Writer-director-costar Theda Hammel casts a satirical gaze at millennial existential crisis in this film set in Brooklyn during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

A satirical queer comedy about gender, identity, sexuality and existential paralysis, set in Brooklyn at the feverish height of pandemic lockdown? Sounds like it has potential. Stir in a starring role for the talented John Early, whose radical delirium, sharp social observation and insouciant swagger have made him an influential figure on the comedy scene, and it seems even more promising. Unfortunately, though, writer-director-star Theda Hammel’s first feature, Stress Positions, never succeeds at making a virtue of its chaotic style, no matter how hard it tries. And it tries hard.

The movie travels in territory familiar from any number of better recent New York-set debut features like Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behavior or Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby, indies about a generation prone to ironic self-awareness and destined to keep forever parsing issues pertaining to identity and sexuality. Whatever their strengths and limitations, those films were unequivocal about the central characters they chose to examine. While Hammel might be aiming for an ensemble comedy, Stress Positions lacks focus; the director can’t seem to decide who should be the heart of her shapeless narrative, a feeling compounded by dueling voiceovers.

Eccentric upstairs tenant Coco (Rebecca F. Wright) came with the building, and Terry has installed his Moroccan nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash) in the basement, where the 19-year-old model is nursing a broken leg. Much of the early action involves Terry in a flap over a series of minor crises — a maskless Coco entering the pandemic pod, an internet outage, a rogue chicken tenderloin causing him to slip on the kitchen floor.

That painful fall prompts him to call his trans friend Karla (Hammel), who arrives with yoga mat, supposedly to work out the kinks in Terry’s back, but gets instantly sidetracked by Bahlul, the subject of much curiosity in Terry’s circle.

Hammel is an appealing screen presence, tossing off inappropriate remarks with blithe abandon and making Karla the sort of friend who’s both endearing and exasperating — her affection often barbed and her opportunism unapologetic. (The first thing she does on arrival at Terry’s is swipe a bottle of vodka from the liquor cabinet.) But Hammel’s merits as an actor — and composer, contributing an interesting synth score — outshine her unrefined instincts as a director. Is there a more obvious shorthand for messy lives than manic handheld camerawork?

The overused parallel voiceovers are by Karla, commenting wryly on Terry’s life while outlining her own disenchantment in her relationship with writer Vanessa (Amy Zimmer), whose first novel crossed some personal boundaries; and Bahlul, piecing together his mother’s past, starting with a fleeting image of her in Terry and Leo’s wedding video. 

Bahlul is the character who comes closest to having a discernible arc, not that it feels fully fleshed out or psychologically sound. The film’s funniest moment has Karla nudging him to explore his feminine side, to leave behind the “hell of men” and join women. Terry’s exposed-nerve response — “Not everyone is trans!” — is I think the one time I laughed out loud. But Stress Positions feels threadbare, sloppy and under-developed. The phrase “fiction is freedom” pops up, though this scrappy snapshot of rudderless millennials needled by pandemic panic doesn’t do enough with that license.