BEFORE: Love in the Time of Corona, Day 3? (I don't know where to start counting from, when the first outbreak hit in China, or when it reached the U.S., or NYC - let's count from March 11, when the W.H.O. started using the word "pandemic", I guess.) Everything is in a state of shutdown, from Disney Parks to a large number of film festivals and events (SXSW, Tribeca FF, WonderCon), to the NBA season and the NCAA Tournament. Now Broadway shows are closed for a MONTH, Hollywood films are moving their release dates, and it's honestly easier at this point to look at a list of things that are still open. Last night I stopped in at a grocery store at 9 pm, when it's usually still open with barely anyone there, to find a long line of people stocking up on canned goods and as much toilet paper as they could fit on their carts. I just needed a loaf of bread, I swear, but then the mentality of a panicked crowd takes over and I ended up buying more groceries, just in case there's a bigger run on the stores, or we're all quarantined when the food I already have at home runs out.
It's potentially a terrible time to be working in any industry, but the film business depends on large crowds coming out to see movies in theaters, that's kind of the goal. So city-imposed limits on crowd sizes seems counter-productive, and now I don't know when or if I'll get to see that "New Mutants" film, which has already had its release date postponed three times since last year - since it seems like a horror-based X-Men spin-off I was planning to review it in October anyway, but now I don't know if it will be in theaters by then, or get released on Disney+ or what. "Black Widow" is the next questionable release date, so we'll see if people are allowed back in movie theaters by May 1 or if that film gets delayed until summer - thankfully I'm planning to review that one in late September, so at the moment all of my plans are still on.
Looking at e-mail at work, it seems we're already in Stage 3 of promotions - Stage 1 was notices of things being cancelled or postponed, Stage 2 was messages from movie theaters and the few film festivals that are still taking place that the management has implemented all kinds of new procedures and cleaning regimens, and is taking their response to the coronavirus very seriously. Stage 3, which gives me a sense of hope, is represented by companies already trying to profit from the pandemic - I swear we got e-mails from a real estate company (saying, "In these uncertain times, you need the reliability of a practiced real-estate office space broker...") and a company that makes SIGNS ("Here's how proper signage can prevent the spread of corona virus in your office...") Shameless, just shameless, but that's capitalism at work. Somehow that makes me believe that we're going to get through this - after working in NYC through a terrorism attack, a blackout, Superstorm Sandy and all the closures and shutdowns that resulted from those things, I think we'll be OK in the end, it's just going to take a month or so to let this thing run its course.
If I'm ordered to stay home, I'll stay home. If I'm allowed to keep working, I'll keep working. We've all got to stay well if we can so we're ready to vote in the NYC primary and then the general election. Nothing is more important than that. We've got two upcoming trips, and right now we're just waiting to see if things improve before we leave town. I'm reminded that we took a cruise in April 2013, just two months after that notorious Carnival Cruise ship got stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine-room fire, and people ended up getting sick after there were overflowing toilets everywhere - on our cruise, staffers were overly cautious about germs and no passengers could serve themselves from a buffet for the first two days. I'm surprised that there were corona virus problems on cruise lines, because I thought they'd implemented these controls industry-wide back in 2013. Our cruise was fine as a result - I just hate to see them backsliding like this.
Kevin Kline carries over from "Definitely, Maybe". And he'll be here tomorrow, then one more time before the romance chain finally comes to a close on Monday.
THE PLOT: Dean is a NYC illustrator who falls hard for an L.A. woman while trying to prevent his father from selling the family home in the wake of his mother's death.
AFTER: It's too bad, this one just barely qualifies for the March Marriage Madness Tournament (which has NOT been postponed or cancelled, unlike the real March Madness) because it's mostly about the lead character dealing with the death of his mother, but also his father dealing with that same loss, and they were married, so there you go. Also, we find out midway through the film that Dean was once engaged, but called it off. Or the relationship fizzled out, it's a bit tough to know who to believe on this point. There's one more connection to the institution, but I'm holding back on it because spoilers.
Dean is an illustrator who makes simple cartoons, and so is Demetri Martin, the stand-up comic who plays him. Since he also directed this film, as with "Marriage Story", I'm now intensely curious to find out to what extent this film is based on his real life. According to Wikipedia, Martin was married briefly while attending NYU Law School, and moved to California in 2009, and got married again in 2012. Dean, the character, was engaged and then flew to California after his mother's death, and met a woman there. The major difference is that Martin apparently based this film on the loss of his father, not mother, when he was 20. For all the other details, we're left to wonder what's based on real life and what is fiction.
Dean's a troubled soul here, not just grieving for his mother, but also upset because his best friend has asked him to be the "second best man" at his wedding, not the first. When the wedding occurs, things do not go well because of petty jealousy between him and the other best man. The fact that Dean's ex-fiancee is also in the bridal party may have something to do with this. At the same time, Dean's father is thinking of selling his house, and Dean does not agree with his decision. All of this leads Dean to hop on a plane to California, where an advertising (?) company is interested in using some of his illustrations in a campaign. This meeting does also not go well - but at least it got him out of NYC, and he meets an interesting woman named Nicky at an L.A. party.
This burgeoning relationship also has a variable level of success, because Dean's having a hard time connecting with someone because of everything else going on in his life. And like any new relationship, it's awkward, unfamiliar and full of conversational minefields. But just after he boards his plane back to New York (with a very talkative seat neighbor), he gets a text from Nicky, and decides to get off the plane and meet up with her on the beach. Who's to say if this is done more to follow up on the intriguing new relationship or to avoid going back to deal with reality in New York at this point? Maybe an equal amount of both?
Meanwhile, in NYC, his father has proceeded to sell his house, and also starting an intriguing relationship of his own, with his real estate agent. What's weird is that the father and son are essentially in the same place, being unsure about starting a new relationship, yet when they speak face to face it feels like they can never get on the same page with regarding to important things. This feels sort of realistic, how many of us are more like our parents than we care to admit, even if we have difficulty communicating with them.
This movie is many different things, a grief-based black comedy, a fish-out-of-water story, a quirkly little festival film, but it's also therefore quite unfocused, like it doesn't really know what it wants to be or say. Maybe it doesn't have to be one thing or make a larger point, but then again I think it's usually stronger when a film does that. I'm going to try to just appreciate it for what it is, even though it may not add up to much, and I also fear that it's going to end up being quite forgettable. I like Demetri Martin and I'll watch him in a comedy special, I just don't know if a dramedy (comi-tragedy?) like this is the right showcase for his talents.
Also starring Demetri Martin (last seen in "In a World..."), Gillian Jacobs (last seen in "Lemon"), Mary Steenburgen (last seen in "The Proposal"), Reid Scott (last seen in "Home Again"), Christine Woods (ditto), Rory Scovel (last seen in "I Feel Pretty"), Briga Heelan, Barry Rothbart (last seen in "The Happytime Murders"), Beck Bennett (last heard in "Sing"), Andrew Santino (last seen in "Game Over, Man!"), Peter Scolari (last heard in "The Polar Express"), H. Jon Benjamin (last seen in "22 Jump Street"), Nicholas Delany, Ginger Gonzaga (last seen in "Ted"), Kate Berlant (last seen in "Sorry to Bother You") and the voice of Florence Marcisak.
RATING: 5 out of 10 missed deadlines
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