Sundance 2025 Review: “Bunnylovr” – A Connectionless Debut!
As everything around us seems to be changing at an alarming pace, we often imagine and romanticize the way things used to be. In this age of technology it feels like people are always saying things like “I miss when we weren’t constantly on our phones” or “I miss when people used to be able to just talk to each other.” Although being involved online can offer an opportunity to connect in ways impossible otherwise, the option to engage in these types of connections often dissociates us from ones in the real world.
Related – Sundance 2025 Movie Review: “Sorry, Baby”
This is not a new phenomena but one that Bunnylovr, directed and written by its lead Katarina Zhu, explores through its portrayal of Rebecca, a “cam girl” offering interaction and private chats on an adult website. Given the film’s more surface level idea, building off of that to create a fresh film with a distinct new voice could have made it work. However, the movie struggles to connect its many ideas into a fully developed story, leaving its audience feeling as disconnected to Rebecca as she is to the real world.
Rebecca (Katarina Zhu) spends her days at a desk job in New York waiting to get home in the evening to begin streaming online to her fans as she slides into her online persona. When one of her clients, John (Austin Amelio) begins to request private chat sessions with her, providing substantial compensation, Rebecca forms a questionable relationship with him, teetering on her desire for connection and her feelings of uncomfortability with the interactions. All of this is also occurring as she begins to connect again with her estranged father Willliam (Perry Young). If it seems like there is a lot going on here, you’d be correct.
“Bunnylovr” stars Katarina Zhu and Rachel Sennott stun at their Sundance premiere 🐇❤️ pic.twitter.com/UmOIodzfju
— Sundance Film Festival (@sundancefest) January 26, 2025
Bunnylovr’s greatest challenge is Rebecca’s detachment to the world and her friends translates into a detachment with the audience. It becomes relatively clear the side Rebecca wants to display online but following her when she steps away from her computer does little to give her substance as Zhu never fully lets her audience in. Bunnylovr feels a little like a series of diary entries that feels all too personal to the filmmaker without developing the material to reach a larger crowd.
In this way it feels like the film is full of individual pieces sitting next to one another waiting to be pushed together. In an industry where films could benefit from studios allowing its artists to focus and work on their distinct vision for a project, Bunnylovr feels like it may have benefitted from a second or third eye to aid in its final result. It is clear that Katarina Zhu made the film with a very particular experience in mind that most likely tells a larger story about herself.
It takes a skilled filmmaker to be so direct and on the nose with a personal experience through film and as a directorial debut, Zhu allowed her own therapy session to dictate the direction and execution of the film. She may have been better off harnessing the emotions she wanted to project through a different topic in order to focus more on execution rather than how perfectly it fits into her own experiences.
Rachel Sennott walks around and does stuff at Sundance with us 🐰 Have you added Bunnylovr to your watchlist yet?
Bunnylovr is available at Sundance Online (for US viewers) from January 31 to Feb 2. pic.twitter.com/8eKrZX4iKH
— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) January 28, 2025
Bunnylovr brings up the familiar topics of a need for community in the face of isolation but then decides to focus its energy on Rebecca’s interactions with John above greater elements. As a result, when their story together comes to a close the film feels like it’s at a standstill, hitting a dead end of a maze where she could have taken a better route. The film brings up how connection often feels more comfortable under an individual’s own control (through her choices of when, how long, and who she wishes to communicate with online) rather than taking a risk in the real world to forge real bonds.
This would have been a stronger path for Bunnylovr to take for its audience, given our forced isolation during the pandemic and how we are just beginning again to step back outside and remember how to be a world again. As a result, Zhu’s first film falters where it had the opportunity to defy expectations.
‘Bunnylovr’ Rating – 2/5
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