“Beeswax” is the story of female twins set and filmed in Austin. One twin is a teacher, and the other runs a clothing boutique. The store is called Storyville and actually exists, although it is not owned by the woman in the movie.

The store-owning twin is in a wheelchair, and the movie does a very good job of showing the lifestyle that that entails without being preachy.

The movie is all shot with one camera, and the mostly handheld filming is a little unsteady, but not Cloverfield-esque. All the actors are non-professional but do a good job. The dialogue is almost overly realistic, full of hemming and hawing, and “you know”-ing, which wears thin quickly.

The story is a detail oriented view of people’s lives, which is an interesting idea, but it takes a good while to become invested enough in the characters for the movie to be worth it for their sake.

There is no music in the movie, which made it more realistic, but music could have livened up the story and stopped it from dragging at points. The only point where music was glaringly absent was during the silent credits, which created a weird tension, especially after the ending, which was entirely inconclusive. The story is not brought to a close or resolution of any kind, but the end feels like an appropriate place for the window in to these people’s lives to be closed.

The director, Andrew Bujalski, who made an appearance after the show, said that he uses a lot of close ups because it is the people and details that interest him.

“Beeswax” is interesting from a film-making point of view, and if you are interested in that sort of thing, is probably educational, or something. As entertainment it falls a little short.