Cora Bora is the perfect showcase for Megan Stalter’s powerful personality

Cora Bora. // Courtesy Brainstorm Media

Megan Stalter has been stealing scenes in shows and movies like Hacks, Problemista and Sometimes I Think About Dying for years. It was only a matter of time before she finally got a starring role that let her take over the whole shebang.

She gets that opportunity in Cora Bora (on VOD July 12), an endearingly shaggy comedy about a would-be musician (Stalter) trying to win back her girlfriend and get her life together.

When we meet Stalter’s Cora, she’s caterwauling at open mic nights and coffee shops in L.A., attempting (poorly) to schmooze at parties and hooking up with a cute-seeming guy (Thomas Mann) who turns out to be a flat-earther with a vengeful ex-girlfriend. In other words, Cora could be doing better. She’s also trying (though not very hard) to keep up a long-distance open relationship with her girlfriend Justine (Jojo T. Gibbs), who’s back in Cora’s hometown of Portland. 

When Cora realizes Justine may actually be in a committed relationship with someone else, she rushes back to make things right, and of course only succeeds in making them worse. Justine is indeed seeing someone else, the more-put-together Riley (Ayden Mayeri). As Cora tries to figure herself out, she also continually runs into a cute indie-rocker (Manny Jacinto) who begrudgingly offers a listening ear and moral support.

Directors Hannah Pearl Utt and writer Rhianon Jones take their hot mess protagonist on an odyssey through former friends, Tinder hookups, fickle parents and sex-cult polycules that Stalter’s Cora bulldozes her way through admirably. If you’ve spent any time around a music scene (or around friends or freeloading roommates who were in one), you’ve met Cora and people like her — self-promoting walking disasters with quirky fashion sense who are fun to be around until they’re not. Stalter walks that line admirably while also making us sympathize with Cora’s foibles.

Cora Bora. // Courtesy Brainstorm Media

To that end, Cora Bora attempts to explain some of Cora’s behavior with a subplot that it doesn’t really need, and that—even though it’s teased early on—feels like a tool to speed along Cora’s development in the third act. It doesn’t quite fit the vibe of everything that’s come before, though it does succeed in getting Cora to a less-awful, more stable place by the time everything wraps up.

Cora Bora isn’t a terribly remarkable movie—it’s fitting that it first premiered at SXSW, where movies like it are a dime a dozen. However, it’s a great vehicle for Stalter, allowing her to be everything that’s made her a standout supporting player thus far, and giving her additional depth and room to stretch. Hopefully it’s just the beginning of even more interesting roles and projects to come.