Another Happy Day (2011)
Another movie filled with inevitable clichés and a mixed bag of jokes and awkward comic encounters. It's nothing special, for sure, and because it seems to have some serious intentions it ends up being even more difficult to love. That said, it was nevertheless watchable because of the growing interplay between curious characters, and because of a couple of strong central performances.
An odd but quick way to describe this movie is this: a Woody Allen farce about a contemporary apparently Jewish dysfunctional family in the rich suburbs somewhere on the Chesapeake, but without the grace and pointed brilliance of Allen's writing. It even begins with Allen-styled white on black text. And it's written and directed by the same person, Sam Levinson--who has probably gotten the chance for direct because his father Barry was so successful in Hollywood.
What works is the bickering mayhem of a contemporary family. They are geographically dispersed but are reuniting for a wedding. Wayward children and ex-spouses all must encounter one another in what should have been (and sometimes is) a tense, hilarious, richly complicated scenario.
The complicated part is there, at least. One of the characters is a son played by Ezra Miller who shows his torment, his dependence of substances of any and all kinds, and his sense of irony really well. The more famous actors like Ellen Burstyn give a strong presence on screen but have to work within the somewhat clumsy construction of the movie. Demi Moore makes a different kind of appearance and is successfully annoying without seeming to fake it one bit. Her husband is played by the ever daft seeming Thomas Haden Church. Throw in Kate Bosworth and a an aging (of course) George Kennedy and you can see how there are moments, or shards, of real potential here.
It is rather the writing and the somewhat pushy melodrama that makes it wobbly even as the end tries to make the family gel. Maybe the movie is a sign of something better to come because it's an attempt at insight into the contemporary American scene. But the art of telling this kind of story, and of having actual insight instead of the appearances of such, need some serious work or maturity.
Another movie filled with inevitable clichés and a mixed bag of jokes and awkward comic encounters. It's nothing special, for sure, and because it seems to have some serious intentions it ends up being even more difficult to love. That said, it was nevertheless watchable because of the growing interplay between curious characters, and because of a couple of strong central performances.
An odd but quick way to describe this movie is this: a Woody Allen farce about a contemporary apparently Jewish dysfunctional family in the rich suburbs somewhere on the Chesapeake, but without the grace and pointed brilliance of Allen's writing. It even begins with Allen-styled white on black text. And it's written and directed by the same person, Sam Levinson--who has probably gotten the chance for direct because his father Barry was so successful in Hollywood.
What works is the bickering mayhem of a contemporary family. They are geographically dispersed but are reuniting for a wedding. Wayward children and ex-spouses all must encounter one another in what should have been (and sometimes is) a tense, hilarious, richly complicated scenario.
The complicated part is there, at least. One of the characters is a son played by Ezra Miller who shows his torment, his dependence of substances of any and all kinds, and his sense of irony really well. The more famous actors like Ellen Burstyn give a strong presence on screen but have to work within the somewhat clumsy construction of the movie. Demi Moore makes a different kind of appearance and is successfully annoying without seeming to fake it one bit. Her husband is played by the ever daft seeming Thomas Haden Church. Throw in Kate Bosworth and a an aging (of course) George Kennedy and you can see how there are moments, or shards, of real potential here.
It is rather the writing and the somewhat pushy melodrama that makes it wobbly even as the end tries to make the family gel. Maybe the movie is a sign of something better to come because it's an attempt at insight into the contemporary American scene. But the art of telling this kind of story, and of having actual insight instead of the appearances of such, need some serious work or maturity.