‘Satisfaction’ Review – All Brilliant Unrecognized Women Go Mad [SXSW 2025]

Until minute six, no single line of dialogue is spoken in Satisfaction, director Alex Burunova’s experimental psychological drama that relies on the unsaid to explain the intricate details of a toxic relationship and the silence of the artistic experience. The film pits the electrifying beginning of a love story between two artists with differing personalities against the grim longevity of their relationship, setting them apart while a mysterious stranger enters their life, bringing sexuality and chaos into it.

In her pursuit of greatness, Lola sacrifices everything else. Nothing matters to her as long as she can seek the next sound, the next rhythm, the next note. To her, people are conquests, tools for inspiration–the music she desperately craves to create as brilliantly as possible. All artists are egotistical, obsessive creatures, and that’s why we love to hate them. Lola is one of those polarizing protagonists who people will develop a complex love-hate relationship with. She knows she’s not a great musician, but she can’t accept the fact. Unlike Philip who is happy with what he has and comfortable in his non-brilliant artistic expression. Lola defies that, and in her route to excess, seeks pleasure at whatever cost, and sabotages everything in her wake. As events in the film unfold, we discover the disturbing secret behind why Lola’s path toward glory and greatness gets brutally severed, like broken bones and torn violin chords. All the more heartbreaking to witness.

Lola selfishly uses everyone around her. As an artist, she needs constant care, but she does not reciprocate because she is seeking perfection and inspiration. To Lola, the allure of seduction is more satisfying than the safety of a stable relationship. Burunova and cinematographer Máté Herbai do a great job of creating an air of uncertainty around the actors, whether with long shots in open spaces, awkward angles, or carefully constructed blocking.

That is until Philip’s true colors are revealed, and it is one shocking moment of revelation, one that immediately sends viewers into sympathy with Lola and fury at the darkness she was exposed to by the person she thought she was the safest with. The film wouldn’t work without Emma Laird’s electrifying performance. She steals the show with one subtle look or her glassy, ice-queen stare. Sometimes she’s dancing around the frame, brimming with excitement and wild energy. Sometimes she’s crushed, a dead weight in the corner of the screen. Her mood swings are heralded by her unpredictability and her grounded performance for which she is truly award-worthy of an artist not reaching her full potential. Her bitterness and sadistic enjoyment of tormenting her partner but also her jailer, Philip, reeks of guttural pain. She has a wound intensified by her loneliness and her intensity, and her partner’s ways of gaslighting her talent, while nurturing his mediocrity with her help, his co-creator in the dark.

This is a film one cannot get enough of. Lola, in all her eccentric, vicious glory, her mad pursuit of perfection, and the next wave, like Bodhi in Point Break of the music world, is looking for the perfect ride. In her quest, she obliterates everything in her wake. Who would blame her? Lola is a tormented genius, at odds with the world, the gods, and those she loves. Who can blame a talented woman whose voice gets constantly crushed and ignored? All brilliant unrecognized women go mad.

Satisfaction adds to the list of films about the modern confusing trajectory of complex love stories we’ve been exposed to in recent years. Thinking about Passengers, Love, Challengers, and others, this erotic psychological drama is more about the hunt for a feeling than analyzing it in its entirety. A feast for the senses for those who seek films about the blossoming and the decay of a relationship under selfish lovers’ watch, Burunova’s film is a thrill ride for wandering minds.

Satisfaction held its World Premiere as part of the Narrative Spotlight section of the 2025 SXSW TV & Film Festival. 

Director: Alex Burunova

Screenwriter: Alex Burunova

Rated: NR

Runtime: 96m