The Big Picture

  • Stress Positions is a pandemic comedy centering on Terry Goon navigating personal dilemmas during quarantine.
  • The film, praised as one of the best pandemic comedies, features an anxious Terry and his teen nephew Bahlul.
  • Directed by Theda Hammel, Stress Positions showcases a Brooklyn brownstone filled with comedic chaos and personal woes.

As if the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic were not stressful enough, Theda Hammel's debut feature, Stress Positions, compiled a list of all the taxing situations one could experience during the quarantine period. Having had its premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, the film — billed as a pandemic comedy — will be having its stateside release on April 19. The recently released trailer, which stars comedian John Early as the extremely anxious Terry Goon, highlights a household full of painful memories from the past, an injured family member, and people meddling in an already anxiety-inducing situation.

Following Early's successful John Early: Now More Than Ever stand-up last year, he is back on the big screen with what's considered his best project yet. Collaborating once again with the transgender filmmaker Hammel — who had just delivered an exceptional short film back in 2022, titled My Trip to Spain — Stress Positions centers on a bunch of New Yorkers spiraling in a Brooklyn-based brownstone owned by Terry Goon's ex-husband, reeling from their own personal dilemmas, failures, and romantic woes as they navigate the frightening COVID-19 pandemic.

What Is Stress Positions About?

The queer-centered movie has received positive feedback since its initial premiere, with some critics calling it one of the best comedies about the pandemic. Co-written by Hammel and Faheem Ali, the film is set in the first COVID-19 summer of 2020. Stuck due to the quarantine, Terry Goon is not only recently divorced but also unemployed. While he fears contracting the virus, he is also looking after his teen nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash), who has a badly broken leg.

Bahlul is a half-Moroccan model who is also dealing with an existential crisis of his own, expressing his desire to quit modeling. As if Terry's situation couldn't be worse, everyone he knows wants to meet his model nephew, further complicating his life. In addition to directing, Hammel also starred as Terry's friend Karla, who meddles with the former's life, along with her girlfriend Vanessa (Amy Zimmer), who both have their fair share of hang-ups.

The official synopsis for Stress Positions reads as follows:

"Terry Goon is keeping strict quarantine in his ex-husband’s Brooklyn brownstone while caring for his nephew — a 19-year-old model from Morocco named Bahlul — bedridden in a full leg cast after an electric scooter accident. Unfortunately for Terry, everyone in his life wants to meet the model."

You can watch the trailer down below: