BEFORE: I'm going to get back to Maya Rudolph tomorrow, and Kaitlyn Dever's going to come back in May for two more films. That leaves Molly Shannon to carry over from "We Don't Belong Here", and it's also time to think about which actor may end up in the most films this year - I think Robert De Niro is still in the lead with 7 films, but Maya Rudolph has 4 or 5 coming up, so she's going to be a contender. Still, the year's champion could be Owen Wilson, who has 4 films coming up in June, but he was already in three films in February, so he could have at least 7 appearances, too. However, I'm not even at the halfway point for the year, so a lot could happen. The next thing I have to figure out is if I'll be able to work in a documentary break after July 4 - if I can, it could help fill that long stretch between July 4 and October 1, as there are only so many "back to school" films for September. I have four target films that could lead me into a documentary chain, so I'll have to start working out some chains from my July 4 film to see if I can land on one, and if so, in how many steps. There's a film on Netflix called "The Laundromat" and it's tentatively in my May schedule, but if that's my documentary lead-in, I can drop it from May and shift it to July.
I've been busy the last couple of days dubbing the "Twilight" films to DVD, I think I've resigned myself to watching them this October, because they do fit into my chain rather neatly. All of those films WERE on Hulu, but they are no longer, so I had to buy them all from cable On Demand now, so I'll have them when I need them. I'm willing to pay for them now rather than run the risk of them not being available on streaming when October rolls around. I'm a bit like a squirrel storing up acorns for winter, but I have to make sure to pick only the right ones. Any actor or actress who was in the "Twilight" series will now be part of my end-of-year countdown, because for most of them, that's five appearances, and my cut-off is usually three.
THE PLOT: A struggling comedy writer, fresh off a breakup and in the midst of the worst year of his life, returns to Sacramento to care for his dying mother.
AFTER: Well, since yesterday's Mother's Day film proved to be something of a bust, it's a good thing that I packed a spare. I found this one on Netflix and had it as part of the romance chain for a short while, but a closer look at the synopsis dictated moving it to May, and the fact that it linked to another film with a maternal theme just confirmed to me that I was on the right track. I've been around the track a few times by now and seen enough films on this topic ("Two Weeks", "One True Thing") to know that it's probably autobiographical, so that means looking at the writer/director's story to try to parse out how much of this story comes from his/her own experience. Yep, it all lines up, comedy writer from Sacramento, performed improv at UCB, worked for SNL, lost his mother to cancer in 2009. Plus there are so many specific details here, like the type of cancer involved and the effects of chemotherapy, and then the effects of choosing to END chemo, that this almost had to come from real life events.
That fact's not really going to count as a spoiler, because it's another film that starts with the ending and then snaps back nearly a year to show how we arrived there. All suspense and dramatic tension is unfortunately lost in this process, but there's still enough good material here to come close to making up for that. David Mulcahey's father still doesn't seem to approve of his orientation/lifestyle, though it's been 10 years since he came out. On a trip back to NYC, his father won't even enter his apartment, I guess because it's the place where naughty things happen (dude, you're going to have to go through this with your younger daughters at some point, get over it...).
The title comes from that feeling that a family tragedy like this is something that happens to "other people", although then you may find that one day it's happening to you, and you then become the "other people" to the people around you. And they're going to either draw strength from your experience, or else thank their lucky stars that it happened to you, and not them. But as many people have learned during this pandemic, even in the middle of tragic situations, it's important that we stay in touch with friends and family, and still find ways to entertain ourselves so as not to get completely bogged down in depression and despair. And that could mean attending a wedding or other family function via a video-conferencing app, you just never know.
The film premiered at Sundance in 2016, and went on to win a few awards, including an Independent Spirit Award for Molly Shannon - good for her, it can't be that easy to transition from comedy to such a heavy dramatic role, and this is quite possibly her best work, combined with "Private Life" a couple years later. She was the director's first choice to play his mother, but didn't get the part until Sissy Spacek dropped out due to a conflict.
Anyway, it's a bit of a tough slog considering the subject matter, and the extended family members were just a bit too madcap for my tastes, but I think it may be worth the effort. After all, this may not be just something that happens to other people, everyone may have to go through some situation like this eventually, and that makes it not just significant but also close to universal.
Also starring Jesse Plemons (last seen in "The Irishman"), Bradley Whitford (last seen in "Godzilla: King of the Monsters"), Maude Apatow (last seen in "This Is 40"), John Early (last seen in "Late Night"), Zach Woods (last seen in "Mascots"), Madisen Beaty (last seen in "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"), Josie Totah (last seen in "Spider-Man: Homecoming"), June Squibb (last heard in "Ralph Breaks the Internet"), Paul Dooley (last heard in "Cars 3"), Retta (last seen in "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip"), Matt Walsh (last seen in "Life of the Party"), Kerri Kenney (last seen in "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"), Paula Pell (last heard in "Inside Out"), Colton Dunn, Nicole Byer (last seen in "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates"), Lennon Parham (last seen in "Bombshell"), D'Arcy Carden (ditto), Rose Abdoo (last seen in "Welcome to Me"), Drew Tarver (last seen in "Dean"), Brandon Scott Jones (last seen in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"), Kyle Lane, Mike Mitchell, Richard Jin (last seen in "Lady Bird").
RATING: 5 out of 10 OK Cupid dates
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