Beautiful and Neat Room

The Blueberry Blues

Andrès Livov

2025 / Canada – Quebec / 90mins

Toaster Rocket Cinema / 8-Feb / 7:30PM

Beautiful and Neat Room is a strikingly original film by Austrian-born, NYC-based filmmaker Maria Petschnig that blends fiction and documentary with exceptional clarity and sensitivity. Following a fiercely artistic woman navigating life in Brooklyn, the story explores her decision to cohabitate with a succession of seemingly harmless—but secretly unhinged—roommates in order to afford a small apartment. Each bizarre, boundary-pushing encounter forces her to confront not only the quirks and extremes of human behavior but also her own norms and limits.

Drawing from Petschnig’s own experiences sharing her living space with over 60 roommates across 22 years, the film achieves an autofictional resonance that feels both intimate and universally relatable. Through spatial minimalism, carefully chosen camera angles, and natural light, Petschnig creates an atmosphere that heightens the shared experience of fundamental existential questions while reflecting the precarious, often surreal life of a contemporary visual artist.

With a career spanning more than twenty experimental films and the acclaimed documentary Uncomfortably Comfortable, Petschnig has earned recognition for her deeply original, Kafkaesque sensibilities. Beautiful and Neat Room is a visually compelling, intellectually provocative meditation on cohabitation, creativity, and survival in the modern city. It’s a film that challenges perceptions, sparks reflection, and lingers long after the credits roll—a masterclass in how autofiction can illuminate the human psyche. – ML