{"id":15847,"date":"2021-02-02T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=15847"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:17:11","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:17:11","slug":"sundance-2021-families-are-still-a-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/sundance-2021-families-are-still-a-mess\/","title":{"rendered":"Sundance 2021: Families Are Still a Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Much has happened in the world since the last Sundance Film Festival<\/a> \u2014 a pandemic, two Taylor Swift albums, an attempted coup \u2014 and while some of this year\u2019s entries do reflect the changing times, quite a few fit comfortably into the familiar categories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, is there anything independent filmmakers love more than exploring screwed-up families, in ways both heartwarming and heartbreaking? I submit that there is not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CODA<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>is the -warming kind, the sort of light, feel-good family drama that gets standing ovations at festivals. Based on a 2014 French film, La famille B\u00e9lier<\/em>, that was never released in the U.S., CODA<\/em> is about high school senior Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of a deaf family (played by deaf actors) in a coastal Massachusetts town. Her father (Troy Kotsur) and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant) operate the family\u2019s (barely) commercial fishing boat, relying on Ruby to handle the radio calls and haggle with the stingy fishmonger who buys their daily catch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruby also likes to sing, a skill for which her family has no use. Her mom (Marlee Matlin) actually rolls her eyes when Ruby joins the school choir, which is led by a standard-issue inspiring teacher (Eugenio Derbez) who declares after hearing about five notes from Ruby that she is good enough to go to music college. The conflict between Ruby pursuing her dream (which we didn\u2019t know she had, but OK) and fulfilling her family obligations is routine, but Matlin and Kotsur both perform so naturally as the parents that you get caught up in the reality of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some corniness aside (Derbez\u2019s performance is much sillier and less real than everyone else\u2019s), writer-director Sian Heder pulls off some truly charming interactions among the Rossis, who despite their issues comprise a loving and essentially functional family. There\u2019s a sublime scene of total silence where Heder shows us the world through the parents ears while the parents try understand Ruby\u2019s singing ability by watching an audience\u2019s reaction to it \u2014 empathy within empathy. It’s easy to forgive a few tired tropes (I forgot to mention there\u2019s also an obligatory love interest for Ruby) when they’re surrounded by such humanity. (Grade: B<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The posh German family in Human Factors<\/em><\/strong> (Der menschliche Faktor<\/em> in German; somehow the factor lost its The<\/em> and became plural while being shipped overseas), is far less functional. Jan (Mark Waschke) and Nina (Sabine Timoteo) are at odds because Jan has made the unilateral decision to have their political consulting agency work with a candidate running on a \u201cforeigners are scary\u201d platform (\u201cThese days you don’t win elections with empathy,” says a staffer). More fractures develop when the pair and their two children are on holiday in Belgium and their vacation home is burglarized. The police are eager to blame foreigners. A theme develops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer-director Ronny Trocker keeps things interesting with  a simple gimmick: occasionally going back and replaying the burglary from a different family member\u2019s point of view. (This culminates in an absurdity that is tonally out of place but makes for a nice moment of levity in a fairly serious movie.) Unfortunately, it\u2019s not till the last replay that anything is actually revealed, and so much of what we\u2019ve seen turns out to have been red herrings. (Grade: C+<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Paul \u00d6zg\u00fcr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was more intrigued by the family in John and the Hole<\/em><\/strong>, yet another traditional nuclear family (mom, dad, son, daughter) with something lurking beneath. Our 13-year-old protagonist, John (Charlie Shotwell), discovers a hole out in the woods \u2014 actually a cement bunker that was never completed \u2014 and decides it would be a good place for his mother, father, and older sister (Jennifer Ehle, Michael C. Hall, and Tessa Farmiga) to be kept. Hey, at least you always know where they are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is slow-burn psychological horror, directed with precision by first-timer Pascual Sisto from a screenplay by Nicol\u00e1s Giacobone (co-writer of Birdman<\/em>). It\u2019s been described (including by Sisto) as a combination of Michael Haneke and Home Alone<\/em>, and I can\u2019t improve on that. Young Shotwell gives an engaging performance as the not-quite-ordinary John, spoiled and wealthy, on the brink of adolescence but still a child. (One great moment relatable to all former adolescent boys: After attempting to impersonate his father\u2019s voice, he realizes he\u2019ll have better luck with his mom\u2019s.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for how it turns out, I won\u2019t spoil anything, because I can\u2019t. There\u2019s an allegorical component to the movie, three scenes featuring two characters not connected to the main action, and I freely admit that I \u2026 didn\u2019t get it. I\u2019m comforted to know, however, that not getting it seems to be the consensus. It\u2019s hard to say whether so many people missing it means Sisto and Giacobone should have worked hard, or whether it\u2019s our fault for not meeting the challenge. I will say that I was intrigued, amused, and compelled all the way through, and that I\u2019m curious to discuss it with viewers who are smarter than I am and perhaps watch it again. (Grade: B<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of how wrong I am, I would have bet a substantial sum while watching Mass<\/em><\/strong> that it was based on a play. It\u2019s set almost entirely in one room with four characters, stagy in an appealing way (I like plays), with dialogue that occasionally sounds too much like dialogue. It\u2019s an actor\u2019s showcase, too: the parents of a boy killed in a school shooting meeting, six years later, with the parents of the shooter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Mass<\/em> is based on nothing but real life, distilled through the mind of actor Fran Kranz (The Cabin in the Woods<\/em>, Joss Whedon\u2019s Dollhouse<\/em>) into a highly impressive writing and directing debut. He captures so well the walking-on-eggshells and elliptical phrasing of awkward situations like this one, where despite everything people are still concerned with social niceties. About 20 percent of the dialogue consists of people saying \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m so sorry,\u201d usually for heinous offenses like setting the Kleenex box in the wrong place or bringing a gift without considering how the recipient will get it home. Everyone is sorry, just so, so sorry for everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton play the parents of the murdered boy; Reed Birney and Ann Dowd are the parents of the killer, who also died that day but wasn\u2019t mourned publicly. All four are terrific, each character arriving with a different attitude, all four changed by the end. It\u2019s a remarkably cathartic experience that dives deep into the subjects of healing and forgiveness. (Grade: B+<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Nanu Segal)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back in the realm of families that are relatively happy (all things considered), we come to Marvelous and the Black Hole<\/em><\/strong>, a formulaic but endearing comedy about a rebellious youth whose life is changed by meeting a kooky old person. It\u2019s 14-year-old Sammy Ko (Miya Cech), an angsty, self-harming girl who misses her dead mother, resents her father\u2019s new girlfriend, and is threatened with reform school if she doesn\u2019t straighten up. While taking a community college class at her father\u2019s (Leonardo Nam) insistence, Sammy comes across Margot the Magnificent (Rhea Perlman), a modestly talented magician who works kids\u2019 parties. Cynical Sammy reluctantly becomes Margot\u2019s assistance, then protege, all while navigating her tumultuous emotions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First-time writer-director Kate Tsang keeps a sunny outlook, even when the humor gets ever-so-slightly twisted. Glimpses into Sammy\u2019s imagination are creative (if not narratively necessary), and anyone who grew up on Cheers<\/em> should have automatic affection for Rhea Perlman. Miya Cech is fiercely funny as the strident Sammy. It\u2019s the kind of movie where all that its defenders, myself included, can really say for it is, \u201cAw, come on, it\u2019s cute!\u201d Sometimes cute is enough. (Grade: B-<\/span><\/strong>) \"\"\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our mini-reviews of five family-ccentric titles at Sundance, including \u2018Coda,\u2019 \u2018John and the Hole,\u2019 and \u2018Marvelous and the Black Hole.\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":15851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1416],"tags":[1419,1436,1494],"class_list":["post-15847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-festivals","tag-film-fests","tag-reviews","tag-sundance-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22590,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15847\/revisions\/22590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}