"The first scene of Kaveh Mazaheri’s shaggy dog story Botox, set in today’s Iran, shows a woman standing entranced in front of the TV, watching Wile E. Coyote fall off a cliff in a Road Runner cartoon. In that gray area between improbable comedy and impossible tragedy, something analogous is about to happen in the lives of two adult sisters who live with their overbearing brother in a country house where they plan to get rich growing psychedelic mushrooms," she wrote.
"Revolving around two women — one autistic, the other a beautician who gives the film its title — who take matters into their own hands when a dramatic event suddenly removes their brother Emad from the story, Botox is a hard film to second-guess," she added.
"Its offbeat tone has drawn comparisons to a Coen brothers’ film, but it isn’t as funny as all that," Young wrote.
"Still, it takes courage to embrace the theme of Iranian women thriving on their own sans men, and it’s refreshing to have a protag who’s autistic (played by the fascinating Sussan Parvar). It took home the best film and best screenplay awards at the 2020 Torino Film Festival, where it bowed, and won the best first feature prize at the recent Fajr Film Festival in Iran."
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