There’s nothingKathryn Hahncan’t do. That’s become abundantly clear with her newest leading role as the titular witch in Marvel’s Disney+ show:Agatha All Along.With the spooky season having commenced, she’s in excellent companyalongsideAubrey PlazaandPatti LuPone, and has become a star in her own right. Prior to being a leading lady in film and television, Hahn worked for years playing kooky, supporting roles in raunchy comedies likeStep BrothersandWe Are the Millers.Then, she got to step into the spotlight in her first starring role in the critically acclaimed comedy-drama,Afternoon Delight.
An award-winning film,Afternoon Delightwas directed by Joey Soloway (Transparent), and grapples with motherhood, marriage, and sexual desires.Debuting in 2013,it shook the film world with its daring content, featuring Hahn’s fearless role as a mother on the verge of a mental breakdown.Juno Templeco-stars as a young stripper whom Hahn’s character becomes obsessed with, andJosh Radnorgives a frustrating performance as Hahn’s entitled husband, andJane Lynchplays her therapist.
What is ‘Afternoon Delight’ About?
Hahn plays Rachel, the mother of a 6-year-old son and wife to the aloof Jeff, who works while she stays at home. Struggling with depression, Rachelmeets with her therapist, Lenore, weekly,but finds that Lenore talks more about her own relationship than Rachel’s with Jeff. Having gone stagnant in the bedroom,Rachel and Jeff go to a strip club with a fellow couple from the neighborhood, where Rachel encounters the magnetic sex worker, McKenna.Rachel then invites a down-on-her-luck McKenna to stay with them at their house, and all hell breaks loose as Rachel becomes intrigued by McKenna’s lifestyle and lets her fantasies run wild.
Kathryn Hahn Plays a Mom on the Verge of a Breakdown
InAfternoon Delight,Rachel has lost purpose in life as a stay-at-home mom who is sexually unfulfilled.Hahn plays her like an antsy animal trapped in a cage, and Soloway films her as a prisoner to the patriarchy,stuck in claustrophobic car drop-offs and small elementary school classrooms. When she receives a lap dance from McKenna at the strip club, it’s her first taste of freedom.Hahn buzzes with a palpable starvationand lustful yearning, with the camera focusing on her obsessive stares towards McKenna, taking in her liberated and free body.
Hahn’s most powerful scene comes during a wine nightwith mothers in the neighborhood, and the more intoxicated she gets, the closer she inches herself to the precipice of a breakdown.Hahn gives a gripping monologue about when she got an abortion in college, while also discussing how soap operas aren’t made anymore.Hahn laughs and cries and snorts through the whole thing, and it’s painful and funny to watch all at once. It’s one of her finest moments on screen in any role as she wanders the room like a lost child herself, mourning the young free spirit she once was. It’s an excruciating breakdown, and the film’s crowning jewelin its depiction of motherhood.It puts a face to the frustration of being a mom, and how invisible Rachel feels,as the fellow moms literally look away from her pain.
‘Afternoon Delight’ and Director Joey Soloway Won Numerous Awards
Director Joey Soloway won the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival forAfternoon Delight,in addition, it was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Hahn also received a nomination for Breakthrough Actor at the Gotham Independent Film Awards.Many praised Soloway’s gritty depiction of motherhood, and Hahn’s fearless commitment to playing a sexually curious woman in her 40s.
Soloway and Hahn would go on to collaborate again on the critically acclaimed Prime Video limited series,I Love Dick.Co-starringKevin Baconas the object of Hahn’s character’s desires,it’s one of the streamer’s most slept-on series, and also celebrates women’s bodies and their sexual liberation.With one of the most daring filmographies out there right now,Hahn originally took flight as the star she was destined to become for the first time inAfternoon Delight,and it’s a delight to watch and witness.
