The Ace Black Movie Blog

Showing posts with label Molly Shannon. Show all posts

Saturday, 11 November 2023

Movie Review: A Good Person (2023)

Genre: Drama

Director: Zach Braff

Starring: Florence Pugh, Morgan Freeman, Molly Shannon

Running Time: 129 minutes

Synopsis: Allison and Nathan (Florence Pugh and Chinaza Uche) enjoy an engagement party, but then Allison's life is shattered: she is driving the car when an accident claims the life of Nathan's sister and brother-in-law. A year later Allison is single, depressed, living with her exasperated mom Diane (Molly Shannon), and addicted to painkillers. Meanwhile Nathan's orphaned niece Ryan (Celeste O'Connor) is being raised by her grandfather Daniel (Morgan Freeman), a model train hobbyist and recovering alcoholic. When Allison and Daniel unexpectedly meet again, they both have to face the past.

What Works Well: The tender melodrama delves into the destructive intersection of grief and addiction to reveal humanity lurking below the damage. Director and writer Zach Braff controls emotions to pragmatic levels, minimizing theatrical outbursts. Instead, Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman convey internal turbulence through sorrow and resolve, without shortchanging the demons of addiction, realities of avoidance, and pangs of regret. Residing in the middle of crises caused by others, teenager Ryan represents a future than can either recover or succumb.

What Does Not Work As Well: A lot is going on here: parental abuse, alcoholism, a fatal accident, and addiction are compacted into a couple of characters. The courage to tackle raw social issues is ultimately undermined by uniformly tidy resolutions.

Conclusion: Quietly effective and well-acted without breaking new ground.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Sunday, 2 April 2023

Movie Review: Private Life (2018)

Genre: Dramedy

Director: Tamara Jenkins

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn, Kayli Carter, Molly Shannon

Running Time: 123 minutes

Synopsis: In New York City, literary couple Richard and Rachel (Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn) are in their forties and desperate to have a child. They continue to pursue invitro fertilization while awaiting the outcome of an adoption application. Richard's step-niece Sadie (Kayli Carter), a floundering college student, is an intriguing possibility as an egg donor, although her mother Cynthia (Molly Shannon) is shocked by the idea.

What Works Well: Writer and director Tamara Jenkins conceives a bitingly funny exploration of an achingly serious topic. Richard and Rachel's all-consuming desperation to pursue parenthood is treated with genuine respect and the all-too-human humour of a stressed couple. The best of intentions result in unintended consequences, exposing mismatched expectations, self-doubt, difficult conversations, emotional pitfalls, vulnerabilities, false hopes, generational divides, and inter-family conflicts. Jenkins infuses the story with an organic New York setting, while touching performances from Giamatti, Hahn, and Carter bring to life three fully rounded characters.

What Does Not Work As Well: Just a few of the dialogue exchanges are over-burdened with scholarly references.

Conclusion: The often vexatious topic of procreation receives charmingly roguish treatment.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Saturday, 1 April 2023

Movie Review: Other People (2016)

Genre: Dramedy

Director: Chris Kelly

Starring: Jesse Plemons, Molly Shannon, Bradley Whitford

Running Time: 96 minutes

Synopsis: New York-based struggling comedy writer David (Jesse Plemons) moves back to his Sacramento home to help care for his mother Joanne (Molly Shannon), who is battling cancer. David has a strained relationship with his father Norman (Bradley Whitford), who never accepted that his son is gay. David also does not tell his parents that his long-term relationship has ended. As the months pass and Joanne's health deteriorates, David tries to reassemble the pieces of his life.

What Works Well: Writer and director Chris Kelly adopts a low-key, mostly calm stance as a normal family becomes the "other people" afflicted by a medical crisis. Traces of humour provide balance to the grim topics of cancer treatment, a life ebbing away, awkward relocations to the family home, and father-son tensions. Jesse Plemons and Molly Shannon carry the acting load with ease.

What Does Not Work As Well: The subject matter is cinematically routine, and even at 96 minutes, the content is limited. David's dating life becomes a sterile sub-story torpedoed by a son-of-a-friend exhibiting bewildering behaviour. David's two younger sisters (Maude Apatow and Madisen Beaty) are short-changed.

Conclusion: These other people are as engaging - and as bland - as most average families.