A scene from Sensitive Parts.
What can you do with $8,000? In this economy, you might be able to buy a decent used car, a fine vacation, or approximately 1/1,000,000th of a detached Toronto home. For Vancouver filmmaker Brendan Prost, though, eight grand allowed him to craft a confident feature about what it's like to operate in a world that seems designed to overwhelm. In Sensitive Parts, Prost focuses on an anxious young woman named Dolore (Carolyn Yonge), who cannot cope with the fact that anyone, let alone her new boyfriend Riun (Sean Marshall Jr.), would hold affection for her. This fragile reality comes crashing down when it's revealed that her best friend Sinead (Jennifer Kobelt) once slept with Riun – and that's also when Dolore's imaginary friend, Fierce (Monice Peter), steps in. There's not much more in terms of plot, which is fine. Yonge's performance is as unnerving as it is captivating, and Prost never lets it slip into easy melodrama. The film may reveal its thriftiness here and there – the sound design is particularly spotty – but Sensitive Parts is one of the best uses of $8,000 you could hope for.
Barry Hertz