Holding Back the Tide is a fascinating but slippery documentary.
It wants to teach us some things about oysters—and just maybe, ourselves. As with eating the things, I think opinions will differ.
By interviews and interludes we learn. Did you know that a New York-oyster made oysters famous? That they’ll float until they find community, or that they’re gender-fluid? Interesting!
And yet, the movie’s free-form nature makes it hard for us to grab onto anything for long. We learn a thing, then we move on to a recital, or some performance art, then we move on again. And so on. Any idea we’d like to stick with we find floating away all too soon.
If you’re here to feel, welcome! But if you’re here to learn more about oysters or the trans community, you might feel at the end, like I did, that we could’ve learned a heck of a lot more.
A pearl; a thing transformed; an object of beauty and desire.