In a breakout role from her "aboriginal sex comedy" period, Bullock proves herself adapt at both physical slapstick and difficult accents. Squeamish or Squamish?, directed by Canadian auteur F. Davis Fillinger (Hormonal Ballet, Fast Times On The Uterine Highway), is a classic 'fish out of water' story in which Bullock plays a young woman who retreats to British Columbia in order to kick a meth habit. (Bullock proves how adept she is at reinventing her appearance, telling press that "I didn't brush my teeth for like six weeks" in order to achieve "meth mouth." Roger Ebert approvingly noted that the lesions on Bullock's face "almost viscerally pulsed.")
Bullock spends a few days detoxing in a rented room above a bait-and-tackle shop. She soon meets 17-year old Egon Ertashink, a Squamish youth of frighteningly primitive appearance. The chemistry between the two "can be cut with a knife," and indeed "is almost uncomfortable in its intensity," according to Bullock scholar Penelope Danner. (Dillinger later admitted that the on-screen sex scenes involved actual penetration on the part of his lead actors, "at Sandra's insistence.")
Ultimately, Squeamish or Squamish? is a classic touchstone of early Bullock, initiating trends -- chemical dependency, sexual fetishization of 'the Other,' pornographic interludes set to 80s Brit-pop -- that would mark her later, major works. Despite shortcomings (choppy audio, inexpert editing, and a script whose emotional range is best described as "autistic"), this 1994 film is a vital Bullockian document worthy of extended scholarly study.
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