Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Take Me In

We finally hand out our first straight A for a 2015 release:

APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR (A) - As assured a debut as you will ever see. Desiree Akhavan spins a smart, funny, passionate tale of relationships in 21st century Brooklyn (where else?).

The film is expertly paced, wry, touching and dead-on about the way humans interact. Akhavan, who had a memorable role in "Girls" this past season (as one of Hannah's Iowa classmates), carries the film like an old pro. She also wrote and directed it, and, playing effortlessly with time jumps, she exhibits the confidence of a young Orson Welles, as if she were born to make movies.

Akhavan stars as deadpan Shirin, a bisexual daughter of Iranian immigrants, trying to right herself after a tough breakup from the butch Maxine (a pitch-perfect Rebecca Henderson, who recalls Lili Taylor). Shirin finds support in her straight best friend, Crystal (the dryly funny Halley Feiffer from HBO's "Bored to Death"), before the story doubles back intermittently to tell the story of Shirin and Maxine's romance, starting with a charming meet-cute at a New Year's Eve party, on the steps of a Brownstone, bonding over their disdain for the culture around them.

Akhavan weaves in Iranian culture but doesn't wallow in it, as if she were directing "My Big Fat Persian Wedding." (One joke you'll find in the trailer sharply deflates any mysticism about Shirin's visits to the homeland; she would mostly sit around watching Disney videos while her grandmother untangled jewelry.) Her parents may or may not be either clueless or in denial about Shirin's longtime lack of a boyfriend, even when they visit Shirin and Maxine's one-bedroom (and one-bed) apartment. Shirin's brother, Ali (Arian Moayed), is the golden child of the family, a doctor who mocks his sister for having majored in journalism.

Crystal hooks Shirin up with a McJob, in which she is tasked with teaching filmmaking to a bunch of 6-year-old boys. She can barely grab their attention enough to lecture about the rudimentary process of stop-action techniques. When she visits a similar class that is full of girls, she finds them deep into production of a shot-for-shot remake of a Hitchcock scene -- one of a few laugh-out-loud moments that bring joy to the proceedings. The other teacher, Tibet (Rosalie Lowe), is a delightfully ditzy former hair model. A stoner turn by Scott Adsit ("30 Rock") is the only flat, cliched performance

Akhavan obviously shares an aesthetic with Lena Dunham (who's "Tiny Furniture" was an impressive debut), and both women are sharply observant in their comedy. But Akhavan sheds the hipster narcissism of the top Girl and instead establishes instant cred with her modern-day take on "Annie Hall" or "When Harry Met Sally."

This is a traditional relationship film, and, like in "Blue Is the Warmest Color," sexual preference or gender roles just aren't the point. You take two people in love and track their progress as they co-habitate. If you have a talent like Akhavan in charge of the narrative, you also have an instant classic.

BONUS TRACK
The perfect closing-credits song, "To the East," from the great melodic noisesters Electrelane: