BEFORE: Sure, anybody can make a list of movies to watch and then chip away at it every day. And probably anybody could, if they wanted to, link all those movies together by making sure that every consecutive pair shares an actor or actress (or archive footage of a famous person). But it takes a special kind of nutjob, I believe, to also make sure that the resulting chain honors the calendar, and all of the year's notable holidays.
If I'm being honest, this part of my process makes the whole thing possible, because it does two things for me - there are probably a near-infinite number of ways to arrange all of the films on my watchlist, but insisting that I pay tribute to holidays reduces that to a more manageable several thousand, or so I've led myself to believe. Also, creating a 300-film chain is very difficult, and the film roster is always changing, so there's no point in setting something up that will be outdated in six month's time. But arranging a smaller chain that gets me to the next holiday is much easier - and so I've created ten (or so) benchmarks that make it easier for me to get through the year - Valentine's Day/February, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, the 4th of July, Back to School/Labor Day, Halloween/October, and Christmas. Any time my films sync up with other occasions, like Thanksgiving or Tom Cruise's birthday, that's a bit of a bonus, and I'll take them if they happen, but I tend not to plan those.
It's Mother's Day, and I'm sitting pretty, with a clear path to the next three benchmarks on the list - plus I've got a great plan for October, I just need to close that gap and figure out how to get to Christmas, but that's a chore for another day. Angela Bassett carries over from "Malcolm X".
THE PLOT: This film about three mothers and their adult sons explores the stage after motherhood, Otherhood, when you have to redefine your relationship with your children, friends spouse and most importantly, yourself.
AFTER: It should be a better Mother's Day all-around than it was last year, because at least vaccinated people stand a chance this time of getting together without putting themselves at risk or accidentally infecting Mom or Grandma over a shared brunch. I just spoke to my Mom and let her know the card's on the way, but since I mailed it on Friday she'll probably get it on Tuesday - I can plan a weekend to take the train up to Massachusetts, but it might be closer to my Dad's birthday and/or Father's Day. I used to send my mother plants in lieu of flowers on Mother's Day, but I don't think she gets outside to do much gardening any more.
But basically, I'm a screw-up, with my card arriving late - she's come to expect that, I suppose. That's the point of this film, adult males are screw-ups, so the three young men in their twenties who grew up together all think that calling their mothers, or even just texting them on Mother's Day is enough. (It's not.) The mothers are still close friends, even if the three men aren't - they all moved from Poughkeepsie to NYC, but only see each other once in a while. So the mothers get the idea after a bourbon-fueled shared brunch to pile into the car and ambush their sons on Mother's Day. This is a terrible idea for several reasons, not the least of which is, they were all just drinking bourbon, which is bound to affect not only their decision-making but also their driving. (Mothers FOR Drunk Driving? Bad idea.)
Also, dropping in on their sons unexpectedly naturally leads to all sorts of awkward possibilities - what if their son had a hot date with a girl the previous night? He might not even be home... What if their son had a hot date with a GUY the previous night? Yeah, this movie goes there, but it's a bit like it's trying to be all-inclusive, work in every possible scenario in order to increase the audience appeal, like those holiday commercials that try just a bit too hard. Two years ago every TV commercial had a gay couple in it somewhere, and last year interracial couples were the hot trend - look how liberal we're all being! Yeah, I see you, and once you notice the trend it's hard to NOT notice it, but are they really trying to reflect the heart and soul of the nation or just pandering? It's tough to tell.
So this results in an all-inclusive Mother's Day film where one family is black, one's Jewish, one mother is a widow, one's divorced and one's remarried. One son is gay, another very serial-hetero and the third just broke up with his long-time girlfriend. This gives each mother opportunities to meddle after the ambush, which in all the cases is apparently what's been missing in their lives, and is probably also the reason why all three sons moved away from home in the first place. They all want to live their own lives as best they can, and 2/3 of them think they've got a handle on things, but then 100% of the time, their mother's advice turns out to be not helpful, and then, of course, extremely helpful.
Again, is this really trying to reflect reality, or just pandering? It's like somebody did a focus group and asked a bunch of mothers what they'd like to see in a film, and naturally that turned out to be scenarios where a mother really does know what's best for her kid, even if that advice is unwanted at first, ultimately she's got to be seen as the smartest, most useful individual. Watch this movie with your mother, and eventually you'll hear, "A-HA! See that! The mother was RIGHT about everything!" OK, that's one way to look at it, I guess, but does that justify a visit without a phone call first? Worse, each mother packed a bag, as if they were naturally going to stay with their son for a week or more. Umm, most NYC apartments don't have guest rooms, who can afford to have an extra bedroom with no roommate sleeping in it? (To be fair, at least two of the mothers chicken out and stay in hotels instead, which makes more sense. They realized their initial plan was terrible, or that their sons' apartments were not livable.)
Along the way, all their personal problems come to the surface, and the three mothers have to deal with things they've been putting off - one has to finally deal with her divorce, one with her dead husband's infidelities, and the third has to play matchmaker for her son and accept the girlfriend she didn't like before. Hey, change isn't easy, but it's the only way that personal growth and acceptance can happen. Although, a few NITPICK POINTS, like throwing your husband's personal items in the swimming pool doesn't solve anything, especially if he's dead and now you have to get the pool cleaned. Why not just throw them in the trash? And learning that your son doesn't like you meddling in his personal life creates a problem that is solved, time and time again, by (wait for it...) MORE meddling. Sure, just keep digging that hole deeper.
I get it, because inaction would be a better solution, but it's a lot less cinematic. And remember, the target audience here is moms, no doubt, so their ways are ultimately going to the best ways, even if they don't represent true change and/or piss everybody off more in the long term.
This film was supposed to have been released in April 2019, in time for Mother's Day probably, but that college admissions scandal that one of the actresses got caught up in delayed it until August of that same year. Well, at least it got on Netflix before Mother's Day 2020, when everybody was celebrating over Zoom and FaceTime, just to be safe. This is definitely a film that will make you want to call your mother, even if that's just to tell her to mind her own business.
Also starring Patricia Arquette (last heard in "Toy Story 4"), Felicity Huffman (last seen in "Big Game"), Jake Hoffman (last seen in "She's Funny That Way"), Jake Lacy (last seen in "Obvious Child"), Sinqua Walls (last seen in "The 15:17 to Paris"), Heidi Gardner (last seen in "Life of the Party"), Stephen Kunken (last seen in "Bridge of Spies"), Damian Young (last seen in "The Trial of the Chicago 7"), Afton Williamson, Frank De Julio (last seen in "A Walk Among the Tombstones"), Becki Newton, Mario Cantone, Emily Tremaine (also last seen in "Obvious Child"), Molly Bernard (last seen in "Sully"), Tim Bagley (last seen in "This Is 40"), Elizabeth Cappuccino, Kate Easton (last seen in "Can You Keep a Secret?"), Kelcy Griffin, Rosanny Zayas, Eve Lindley.
RATING: 4 out of 10 slices of New York pizza
No comments:
Post a Comment