I have been waiting for this movie since 2017, when it was making rounds of the film festivals to great acclaim. Amazon picked it up and I finally had a chance to watch it.

Signature Move, directed by Jennifer Reeder and co-written by Fawzia Mirza and Lisa Donato, follows Zaynab, an immigration laywer, who is feeling stifled living with her widowed mother…a mother who, predictably, wants her to be married.  Zaynab copes by taking up Lucha-style wrestling, which she is learning from a client. She meets Alma, and their romance throws her life into disarray.

The acting is superb. Alma and Zaynab have instant chemistry. Alma’s personality is easygoing and garrulous, while Zayna’s pent up emotions make her instantly sympathetic. The scenes with Alma and her Mexican family are full of color and smells and sounds – the life of a happy household, while Zaynab’s Pakistani mother loses herself in Pakistani television dramas and searches for a husband for her obvious-to-us very gay daughter. I very much enjoyed Mirza’s portrayal of Zaynab – cool, but horribly awkward and ultimate goofy, against Sari Sanchez’ gregarious and straightforward Alma.

The dialogue moves fluidly between Mexican Spanish, Pakistani Urdu and English with accompanying background music, which made for a fluid spoken and musical soundtrack. The cinematography never gets in the way of the story, which is set in Chicago, but could be any city in America.

Wrestling here stands as loud, colorful metaphor for Zaynab’s journey of self-acceptance. Zaynab’s mostly closeted, unwilling to be seen as being gay in public. The masks that covers her face in the scene above is a not-very subtle image of the way she hides from life. “I feel like you’re keeping me secret, “Alma says, but Zaynab is keeping herself secret, as well.

I particularly liked that the sex wasn’t more important than the relationship, or the inner lives of the characters. And I loved every single one of the supporting characters. They made the movie charming and wholly enjoyable. A perfect Sunday afternoon watch that left me with a smile on my face.

Ratings:

Cinematography – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Service -1
LGBTQ – 8

Overall – 8

I would totally watch a television series with this cast.