San Francisco IndieFest 2025 Coverage
Anxious review
Depression has rarely been so colorful.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Anxious
Directed by Nida Chowdhry
Written by Nida Chowdhry
Starring Nida Chowdhry, Anwar Molani, Linh Bui, Sammy Cantu, Saman Hasan, Jessica Mosher, Charlie Q. Smith and Ernest Walker
Anxious Review
We’ve reached the stage of covering San Franciso IndieFest 2025 where we dip our toes into some non-horror related films. With Panic Fest beginning…we’ll be flush with festival horror to talk about soon enough. Anxious was one of the more intriguing films available on the virtual side of IndieFest this year. The summary provided for the feature refenced films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Amelie and Alice in Wonderland as influences. While each of those can be found in the film’s DNA (Okay…I’ve never seen Amelie so I can’t back that up), it’s a different piece of content that was brought to my mind. The excellent Netflix animated program Bojack Horseman.
If you’ve never seen Bojack Horseman that’s probably going to sound crazy. There are no talking animals providing a satirical look at Hollywood here. If you are familiar with the show…you likely already know what Anxious has in common with it. Bojack, beneath all the colorful commentary and animal related jokes was a shockingly unflinching look at mental health. Anxious immediately calls to mind the season four episode Stupid Piece of Sh*t. If you need a refresher…that’s the episode where we hear Bojack’s inner thoughts. His negative self-talk pushes him away from healthy situations and causing his own downward spirals.
Anxious uses a similar concept…and pushes it to the extreme. Nida Chowdhry stars as Ruby. She also directs, writes, produces and serves as the costume designer for the film. If you haven’t figured out that this is going to be a very personal story yet…I don’t know what to tell you. The entire story can almost be compressed to a moment in time…because, for Ruby…it’s every moment in time. Small victories require overcoming massive obstacles. All of which exist in her own mind.
Ruby spends most of Anxious interacting with two other versions of herself. One that is negative about everything…the other she views as her idealized version. Somewhat like the old angel and devil on the shoulder trick…only both have equally bad advice for her. Maybe it’s more akin to Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets. Criticizing every little thing they can. Picking at every nit.
Ruby and her two consciences give Anxious that surrealist feeling you’d find in Eternal Sunshine or Alice in Wonderland (there’s even a tea party) or, one assumes Amelie. Chowdhry creates three distinct but equally flawed characters. Ruby learns that even a perceived perfect existence won’t solve her biggest issue and provide her with happiness. Only she can do that. Until she can be at peace in her own mind…no outer stimuli have a chance. Anxious wisely knows that mental health isn’t fixed with grand gestures or perfect outcomes. It takes small, almost unnoticed progress. And that small step can be the most difficult one to take.
Chowdhry is great in the triple role. She’s written an interesting, personal, story…and directed it with noticeable style. The fashion in the film plays a central role…and she crushed that too. The three Ruby’s each have a unique style…and there are plenty of costume changes throughout.
The concept does start to wear a bit thin after a while…but Anxious brings things back around for an interesting and satisfying conclusion. The strong performances and feeling that anything can happen (or be said) while nothing is actually happening keep things entertaining enough while getting there.
Scare Value
Anxious is a clear labor of love for Chowdhry. She has her hand in all levels of the production…and the personal touch elevates what could have been a quirky but repetitive concept. Ruby needs to learn about small victories and the effort it takes to achieve them. Nida Chowdhry immense efforts lead to a much bigger victory than that.
