SXSW Film Review: Introducing, Selma Blair

Selma Blair in new SXSW documentary Introducing, Selma Blair

Selma Blair’s escape from the world is her backyard pool: a safe space where she goes to free herself from the pain of her MS (Multiple Sclerosis), a disease that eats away at her immune system, resulting in nerve damage that prevents her brain and body from communicating.

For the SXSW documentary Introducing, Selma Blair, this body of water creates a comfortable environment that gives the Cruel Intentions and Hellboy star the space to explore and show her tears, anguish, and bad days in front of a camera.

The first time Blair uses the comfort of her backyard pool to open up, she’s dressed in white lace. The day is cloudy, and dark, and feels empty, a setting fit for the story she is recollecting. Blair reflects on her 2016 airplane meltdown, a time before she realized she had MS, when she abused alcohol and pills to numb her pain. Broken toys are scattered across her yard, and she sits in her hot tub, water soaking her dress, sharing her deepest regret as a parent. There’s a sense of loneliness that’s hard to escape, a feeling of exhausting disappointment in herself, but at the same time there’s strength and clarity: Blair explains she never drank again after that day.

Introducing, Selma Blair is as much about the actress’ struggle with MS as it is about her painful relationship with her mother. The first time Blair broaches her mother, it’s with a heavy heart. Her mother is a constant presence, hovering over Blair, constantly in the back of her mind. She’s disapproving, judgmental, and hard to please. “You’re not meant to be a mother, you’re not meant to be married,” Blair recites, connecting her mother’s painful words with her agonizing disease, one that has prevented her from being the kind of mother she desires to be.

With MS, Blair’s body shuts down. A play date with her child leaves her exhausted, defeated. She takes off her clothes, slowly and painfully, and crawls into bed. She wants to escape her suffering, even if the cost might be her life.

The hospital visits for stem cell transplants are some of the toughest parts of Introducing, Selma Blair. Director Rachel Fleit captures Blair sobbing in bed, crying through her son shaving her head, and emotionally crumbling after losing the ability to walk after being outside. But even through the toughest moments, there’s a light and playfulness in her that radiates.

The final moments of Introducing, Selma Blair have her revisit her pool that she’s recently renovated. Donning her mother’s “Merlin the Magician” dress, she floats, eyes closed, at peace. The water is her safe space, and as she sheds off her mother’s dress, she swims away, completely at one with herself, and free from the mental burdens of her past.

Introducing, Selma Blair

Documentary Film Competition

World Premiere