Dances With Films Reviews: Justin Geldzahler’s GLUE TRAP catches a couple in the sticky horror of a struggling relationship
When Dan (Isaac Jay) and KJ (Brittany Bradford) are at the end of a dying relationship. Friends Jenn Ramsey (Caroline Hertz) and Jenn Shelton (Kasey Marr) have this great idea about a cabin in the middle of the woods. Dan and KJ comply, believing that a cabin in the middle of nowhere could be the perfect fix for failing relationship. Of course, it’s not.
Justin Geldzahler’s Glue Trap is the story of the couple’s stay at the cabin. It’s a slow burn psychodrama that teases the audience along what opens like a predictable drama about two people. A mouse caught in the trap becomes a pivotal moment that almost ends the couple. The tension is thick in the first 30 minutes, building until it seems that someone has to die in order to release the pressure.
Enter Eliza (Gloria Bangiola). She is bubbly, the “happy-go-lucky” type. She is also a character who is revealed in menacing layers, and that’s the pressure release our couple needs at first. Then we find that Eliza is lowkey racist. As KJ puts is, “She probably don’t vote Republican, but she definitely loved [the movie] Green Book.” Confirmation for this statement comes in a tongue in cheek and very twisted moment toward the end.
Meanwhile, Dan is suddenly alive, enamored by everything this new woman does. He is a walking microaggression at one point, gaslighting KJ and encouraging Eliza! Eliza invades KJ’s space in a key scene that ties in the title and the first day at the cabin and yet KJ is the villain. Is Eliza trying to alienate her? It feels that way. No one should be treated badly for disliking olives, but Eliza makes it happen and Dan is right there to scold KJ. It feels like there may be an affair in the works.
By the time Eliza unleashes her full crazy on the couple, Dan and KJ are finally seeing how utterly unnecessary their entire last days were. Was their relationship really dying, or were they just bored and taking one another for granted? By the time this resolution comes, the audience just might be rooting for Eliza to do her worst, whatever it may be.
The themes of relationships, subtle race (microaggressions) relations, privilege, and boundaries all come together to create a slow burn thriller. There is a wild twist at the end that is almost sad, if we didn’t spend the first 30 minutes the film low-key tired of KJ and Dan’s antics. The party gets started when Eliza sweeps in. She is the crazed catalyst that rescues the film. She even adds some depth to the couples’ backstory, depth that is sorely needed.
Glue Trap recently premiered at Dances with Films in Los Angeles.
