Lime & Vinegar

It’s hard not to watch Lime & Vinegar right now without thinking of the reckless and heavy-handed ICE raids taking place all over America, breaking up families and angering communities as they go. Its story of two cleaners who get stranded in a house in middle America is a thoughtful film about relationships and the experience of those society too often ignores.

Daniela (Dalma Daniela) and Lorena (Yiseth Brendlinger) are South American immigrants working as house cleaners. Daniela’s experience has made her capable but unhappy, fearing that she has become a stereotype. She begins to bond with her newbie colleague, but when they end up stranded at the house, a call to her childish boyfriend Chris (Corey Angelus) and his friend Matt (Evan Beardsley) result in a greater sense of self-discovery for the pair.

The fixed-camera staging that Lime & Vinegar utilises through gives it a documentary feel – appropriate given that this is a powerfully authentic and humanising representation of the immigrant experience in the US. Daniela and Lorena are two unremarkable people who work standard jobs, and their experience throughout the film is nothing that two co-workers might not experience on a given day (albeit a very unfortunate one). But it is this un-remarkability that makes the film itself remarkable. Far from the images that so often get raised of migrant workers, Daniela and Lorena are passionate, hard-working people who have lives & loves. It is not a coincidence that Chris is painted as a nepo-baby – someone who hasn’t had to raise a finger to gain an advantage in life. Despite being American, it is obvious who contributes more to society and who doesn’t.

The complexity of relationships is a running theme throughout the film, with each of the principal cast carrying depth and interest. Both Daniela and Lorena have contradictory attitudes to relationships and sexuality – neither feeling fully comfortable with the modern American ideal, such as having difficult feelings around missing being catcalled in their home country. Likewise, the two men are not one-note bad boyfriends – Chris throwing a childlike tantrum and becoming violent, but also making a cross-town journey to help his girlfriend out of a bind. At its best the film is a great character study that understands that people are never caricatures, or the stereotypes that Daniela fears becoming.

Dalma Daniela and Yiseth Brendlinger thrive with a considered and thoughtful dynamic. Daniela’s experience in life and work makes her the more dominant of the pair, but also the more cynical. She finds early on through a prank she plays that Lorena has layers and a personality of her own, and begins to see traces of herself in her partner. It is easy to see the invisible walls they face from the performance, not just their stories. Conversely, the destructive and carefree Chris and Matt scream privilege and security, arriving like a hurricane in a house that does not belong to them. Yet Corey Angelus and Evan Beardsley walk the fine line of likeable enough to make the relationship believable.

Lime & Vinegar can be slow in moments and becomes visually stale after a while. But as an overall production, it is a fine demonstration of one example of the migrant experience. The people who are so often spoken of with disregard are not abstract, they are real individuals with real lives and real jobs – like Daniela and Lorena. Positive and authentic representation is important, and is accomplished wonderfully here.