Release is a very strange film, extremely intriguing but not easy to watch - for two reasons. Firstly, the two protagonists go through such emotional anguish and existential turmoil that empathizing with them is downright painful. Secondly, the storyline is quite obtuse, taking many surprising narrative detours, and is not all that easy to follow. That said, if one sticks with it, Release turns out to be a breathtaking - if emotionally draining - journey through the lives of two sisters whose lives intermingle uncomfortably for a time. Rosalinda, when first seen, is so silent and passive, we think she may be mute. As it turns out, she is merely the severely repressed victim of an abusive hack evangelist (is there any other kind?) Rosalinda's sister Ariana, has conspired to kidnap and rescue Rosalinda from what was surely a death sentence at the hands of her idiot fop husband. What should be a happy reunion, however, turns into anything but, as Rosalinda and Ariana immediately clash over reliving traumatic memories of their childhood with a substance-abusing father. Moreover, Ariana is a stoner and a pill-popper, and due to an impending divorce, basically implodes under the horrified eye of her also-precarious sister. Added to all this are some baffling sequences - either bad dreams or self-punishing daydreams - which show each woman living their worst nightmares, either separately or with their sibling; some of these terrifying moments catapult Release into virtual horror-film territory. The filmmakers seem determined to baffle easy comprehension, by continually obscuring the line between the women's dark fantasies and their daily life of real horrors, and in this, Release succeeds wildly, by depicting the sisters' travails as what they really are - waking nightmares. The sheer angst of each woman's difficult struggle to climb out of her mental prison - forged in childhood but maintained in adulthood by a punitive, loathing self - makes for some moments of true agony, for the characters and for the audience. But Jackie Renee Robinson and Lauren Karaman are both simply amazing as the tortured siblings, and the film, although highly disturbing, is well worth the effort for the courageous. But be forewarned, this is not fun and games - Release is definitely not your Mother's Lifetime Movie!
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