Archive for November, 2025
Unfaithful: Mistress Dispeller film review
I just saw Elizabeth Lo’s new documentary feature, Mistress Dispeller, this past weekend and was intrigued and engrossed throughout. Lo uses stylized visual techniques to expand the documentary medium while never losing sight of the humanity of her subjects.
The film’s concept is interesting as it follows Ms. Wang, whose business in China specializes in hiring out to help to break up extramarital affairs. Her particular skills are engaged by Mrs. Li, a middle-aged woman who has discovered her husband is having an affair with Fei Fei, a younger woman from a nearby city. Beyond the novelty of the premise, Elizabeth Lo’s unobtrusive camera emulates a narrative fiction film and plays out like a parlor drama.
Lo’s last film, Stray, also used unconventional cinematic techniques, as it told the story of Istanbul’s stray dog population from the perspective of the dogs. That premise seems high-concept but Lo broadened its scope by also looking at the state of Istanbul’s refugee population. Similarly, Mistress Dispeller has a hooky concept, but Lo delves deeper than its seemingly sensationalistic premise. It would be easy to demonize the cheating husband or his girlfriend but Lo gives these characters a complexity that evades simple dichotomies. Although the basic love-triangle premise sounds like a reality show, there is no villain edit. Lo presents all of the main characters sympathetically and with complexity.
Lo also expands the visual style historically followed by many documentary filmmakers. Although her approach is related to cinema vérité, in the tradition of Frederick Wiseman and others who unobtrusively follow their subjects and who eschew narration, voiceover, or other techniques that guide the viewer, Lo’s film is a far cry from Wiseman’s oeuvre. Unlike Wiseman’s handheld camera and rough, 16mm aesthetic, Lo for the most part locks down her camera at a medium distance, or inserts aesthetically captured close-ups and establishing shots. Perhaps owing more to Jia Zhangke than Wiseman, Lo blurs the line between documentary and fiction film.
NOTE: I’m always happy to see movies at the Roxie, not in small part due to its outstanding popcorn, complete with freshly drawn butter and optional nutritional yeast. During the contentious battle to save the Castro its once-excellent popcorn had pretty much gone to shyte and now after its renovation I’m not optimistic it will be restored to its culinary glory. This leaves the Roxie, the Balboa, the New Parkway in Oakland, and other indie cinemas to carry on the Bay’s glorious fresh movie popcorn tradition.
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