When Sparks Turn Into Flames
Below Her Mouth begins in Toronto, where Jasmine (Natalie Krill), a successful fashion editor, lives a seemingly stable life with her fiancé, Rile. Her world is orderly — a picture of success and control. On the other side of the city, Dallas (Erika Linder), a roofer with an independent spirit, lives by her own rules. She’s confident, unapologetic, and fresh out of a breakup.
Their worlds collide one night at a bar, and everything that follows unfolds with electric intensity. What starts as curiosity soon becomes obsession. Jasmine tries to resist, held back by her engagement and her need to maintain appearances, but Dallas’s magnetism pulls her in. Over just a few days, Jasmine’s life unravels as she’s forced to confront truths she has long ignored — about love, freedom, and herself.
Beyond Attraction — A Story of Transformation
For Jasmine, this film represents a journey of the awakening. In the beginning, only structured and distanced, she is the type of woman who constructs and regards happiness within the bounds of structure and social status. As she and Dallas become more intimately acquainted, she begins the slow awakening to the realization of how much of her life has been devoted to the priorities of others. In this transient, forbidden relationship, Jasmine finds both the liberation and the pain of her new awakening; one of the startling lessons she learns is how freedom is so often sullied by a cost.
In contrast to Jasmine, from the social and relational status, Dallas is the wild, raw, and brutally honest individual devoid of the emotional and social structure and status. In the world of the vulnerable, she has the invisibility of emotional thickness, the pain of true authenticity, a form of trauma, and Dallas’s attraction to Jasmine is raw, fearfully honest, and to be very frank, inevitably perilous. In so many startling, honest, and unexpected ways, this story puts Dallas emotionally bare to a public for her soul to be witnessed.
For a film so driven by a single relationship, the raw emotional intensity of the relationship is portrayed by both Natalie Krill and Erika Linder in a stunning performance. In achieving this, the film captures the fine balance between emotional passion and emotional pain.
The Vision Behind the Lens
Below Her Mouth, directed by April Mullen and written by Stephanie Fabrizi, is unique in that it is the first film to be produced entirely by a women crew. Each woman was tasked with a distinct creative role, whether it be in the camera, lighting, or sound departments. The motivation behind this contrarian approach was to express female desire captured through a female lens, rather than a marketing choice.
The production was carried out in and around Toronto over a short span of three and a half weeks. The emotionally charged environment and the devotion of the crew created the opportunity to grab the film’s raw energy. Emotion was captured in close-up shots, and natural lighting was used to heighten the focus placed on the intimancy between the characters.
Mullen’s goal was to build an immersive experience of the film. To accomplish this, the design of each frame invited the viewer emotionally into the scene in a way that a participant would feel, rather than an observer. The result was an experience that felt raw and intimate.
Real-Life Preparation and On-Set Chemistry
Now recognized as an androgynous model, Erika Linder took a courageous step into her first major acting role. While she was playing Dallas, she was able to focus on her identity and contended with the normative representational boundaries of queer characters. Linder played the role with a unique blend of quiet confidence and fragility.
Prior to this role, Natalie Krill had been concentrating on television, and she fully embraced the vulnerability that Jasmine required. “The most honest and exposing experience of my career,” was how she described this role. There was, she believed, a great deal of honesty in the physical and emotional dimensions of the role. The two leads built a strong bond of relational trust on the set, and this was critical as the leads in an ensemble. The crew reported that a number of powerful scenes were shot in a single take. This approach allowed the actors to remain fully present, attuned to the shifting and uncontained passions as well as the heartbreak. This was not a stylized performance; the emotional intimacy captured in those scenes was the result of bold, real-time artistry.
Reception — Controversy and Conversation
Below Her Mouth piqued controversy immediately after its premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Reviews were quantitatively and qualitatively polarized — some praised the film’s boldness and sincere eroticism, while others accused it of superficiality. The film’s eroticism was provocative, simultaneously drawing more uncompromising attention, and more polarized receptions.
Lack of narrative depth was the deficiency questioned by mainstream critics. For mainstream audiences, especially those in the LGBTQ+ communities, the film’s unapologetic portrayal of lesbian love was celebrated. There was no hiding, no code, merely proud visibility.
The range of opinions on social media was extreme, although there was consensus on the film’s importance in stimulating conversations on representation, female sexuality, and the ownership of the narrative. Some described the film as one of the most authentic portrayals of queer passion, while others said the passion was exaggerated and stylized.
The Symbolism Behind the Story
Below Her Mouth is also a richly symbolic work. The contrast between the order and security of Jasmine’s upper class, high- rises and the chaos and risk of Dallas’s working class, fringe existence embodies the emotional distance the two women must bridge.
Cleansing, rebirth, and emotional unaffection are the things water represents. In the film, water is represented as rain, showers and, tears. Even the city of Toronto becomes a character of its own, reflecting the tension between private desire and public life.
Prolonged silences, minimal dialogues and, intense close-ups confers the audience with intimacy in a most exposed and raw form. The film, discomfort is not afraid of.
Why the Movie Still Matters
Below Her Mouth is almost a decade old. It is still a hallmark in queer cinema. And it is not because it was perfect, but because it took the risk to be different. It was artistic and it was the first time queer representation was more than fifteen of the mainstream.
It was not the one who made it. It was the first time power erotic storytelling was told to the audience and it was told by an all-women cast. For most, it was the first time explicit queer desire was told to the audience.
It does not matter what the viewer thinks, Below Her Mouth is a film that is remembered. It opened a door to the discourse of complex emotional and physical layers of attraction. It was the first time raw desire was told on an explicate form. The film did not shut any discourse. It was made to be explored.
A Final Look Beneath the Surface
At its core, Below Her Mouth is more than a story about two women falling into forbidden love. It is about what happens when desire ultimately compels you to your own limits. It is about the journey of discovery, identity, and the complexities of the human experience.
This film is paradoxical; every frame, every gaze, and every sound is filled with one of the most human emotions, a desire, not only of the interpersonal kind, but a longing for one’s freedom. And this could be the reason it still sparks discussions, many years after its release. Because with its surface stripped, it is not only love, or lust, it is a longing for truth, and a palpable one at that.
Watch Free Movies on Yesmovies-us.online