Joy Joy Nails (Joey Ally, 2017) USA

Reviewed by Bryan Austin Gillison. Viewed at the AFI Film Festival 2017.

Sarah runs a nail salon in a gritty downtown area. The business is competitive in more ways than one. We find out quickly that her promotion seems to be due to a romance with the owner’s son who stops by regularly to help manage the establishment. What unfolds throughout the short film is that her understanding of that relationship (and the audience’s in turn) is not quite accurate. We find out that the man she loves uses his position of power to coerce sex out of the nail salon’s employees, and that she was only one of many.

This film focuses on an immigrant community, and highlights the prejudices that can occur even within communities the general public might (incorrectly) consider a single unit. The Korean nail techs take issue with the Chinese nail tech and talk about her relentlessly in a language she does not understand. It was brutally real and human, we’ve all seen the way insecure coworkers can create an abusive environment for the new girl/ guy. The layers of interaction the screen writer was able to convey in such a short film are no doubt aided by the intense realism of the film and the commonality between all people who have experienced workplaces like this.

The film has a very controlled pallet. As you can see in the photo above, the urban outdoor scenes have a blue grey hue to all the city scape, and the actresses are all adorned with bright neon pink accents. The nail salon is a pastel dream that mimics the gloss of freshly painted nails. This approach in film making does a great job of showing the seedy underbelly of cities we adorn with gloss and color.

When the tension really begins to build in the plot, the film makers manage to infect the viewer with unease. This is done with sound and visuals. Super close macro shots of nails being filed paired with painfully intense scrapping noises as the music builds in intensity. We see nail polish brushes sliding across nails the size of the screen with gross squishy noises. Skin rubbing and turning red. The stress builds and builds the same way pressure slowly accumulates with suspicion of any betrayal.

The most intense scene occurs in the waxing room where the boss’s son seduces women. Sarah chooses to confront the new girl about “stealing her man”. The room is dark. The neon pink lights flicker and fade. Sarah threatens the girl, hits her, curses her. Then suddenly the new girl snaps, crying, shaking, screaming at Sarah in mandarin. This is the only scene in the film that has no subtitles. The actress does not even need them. The strain in her hoarse voice, the way her neck veins and tendons tensed and bulged. The fear, remorse, and deep sadness in her eyes told us all we needed to know. She had been forced. She speaks two words in english: “NO Baby”

This film was engaging, funny at times, and heart breaking at others. It felt real, and honest. I found myself very sympathetic to each girl’s position. The film explores power relationships, and masculinity in a way that crosses cultures and borders, and is a very timely piece given our current political and social climate.