LADY PARTS dramedy by Bonnie Gross – Review & Q&A

As we like to do, my Bestie Diane Roka joined me for this screening and Q&A where she did her drawtography capturing the moment.

With the confidence of a film that knows exactly what it wants to say, LADY PARTS turns taboo into punchline and personal struggle into communal catharsis. Based on the true story by writer and executive producer Bonnie Gross. And directed by Nancy Boyd, this story turns one woman’s intimate experience into a comedy-drama that resonates far beyond the personal, blending humor, candor, and genuine humanity.

Paige – wonderfully played with hilarious deadpan charm by Valentina Tammaro – has lived her formative years dealing with excruciating pain in her vaginal region. It hurts to insert a tampon, wear certain pants and most-definitely during sex. Over the years, she’s sought out medical attention for her chronic pain, but most doctors dismissed it as stress or a minor issue. When at last she finds a doctor who specializes in her condition, who recommends a vulvar vestibulectomy, she has to face the fact that this is going to majorly disrupt her entire life – for a full year! Not only her own career goals and friendships in LA, but to get the surgery and maintain the long recovery, she’ll have to move back to the Philly area (Yup, Bonnie’s a Philly native) and in with her parents (Amy Lyndon and Peter Larney) upending their lives and finances as well. Lucky for Paige, she couldn’t have more adorable and ridiculously supportive parents.

The description of the recovery/recuperation period sounded so restrictive and rather mortifying, that I do wish we got a little more of this in the film to truly take us on that journey with her, but otherwise it’s an impressive, low budget, first feature for Gross. It isn’t just a film about pelvic pain – it is a film about being seen. Gross’s highly amusing script helps to illuminate the ways women’s health experiences are sidelined or stigmatized, but not with a sledgehammer. The material is PG-13 accessible enough for teens and for men of any age to watch without too much squirming.

I missed this film during the Women’s Film Festival this past fall, so it was great to be invited to a special screening at the Fallser Club in East Falls with Bonnie Gross and a panel of women’s health experts.  It will screen again in the Philly area on March 28,2026 at Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

Check out the Q&A on Tinsel & Tine’s YouTube Channel…

Panel Moderator – Dr. Jessica Klemens is an OBGYN physician and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner (MSCP), co-founder of Physicians for a Healthy Pennsylvania, physician activist for access to reproductive healthcare.

Bonnie Gross is an award-winning comedy writer, producer, and post-production pro who’s never met a taboo topic she couldn’t turn into a smart, comical, and relatable story. She has a passion for telling authentic stories that focus on the realities of living with chronic vulvovaginal and pelvic pain, which she believes deserve far more screen time.

Dr. Timaree Schmit is a sexologist, educator, freelance writer and consultant in human sexuality, and she believes that sexual freedom is the foundation of social justice. She was the host of the award-winning podcast Sex with Timaree, co-host of the long-running Philly favorite sex education/comedy show DTF: Darryl & Timaree Fun Hour and was the long-time LGBT Affairs and Sexuality contributing writer for Philly Weekly.

Susan Kellogg-Spadt, PhD, CRNP is the director of female sexual medicine at the Center for Pelvic Medicine in Rosemont. She is a nationally recognized expert in pelvic floor dysfunction, vulvar pain, and sexual dysfunction. She is a professor of OB-GYN at Drexel University College of Medicine, a professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and clinical associate faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University.

Dr. Michelle Friedman is the owner of Atlantic Physical Therapy. She graduated Drexel University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program in 2007 with a concentration in orthopedics and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from The George Washington University. She founded Atlantic Physical Therapy in 2015 with a mission to provide high quality holistic care.