alcoholism

Stream of the Week: A COUNTRY CALLED HOME – to move on, she needs another look at her past

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Imogen Poots in A COUNTRY CALLED HOME
Imogen Poots in A COUNTRY CALLED HOME

Since this is Imogen Poots Week at The Movie Gourmet, this week’s video recommendation is a totally overlooked drama from just last year, A Country Called Home. Somehow A Country Called Home missed out on any significant theatrical release even though it’s a very satisfying Finding Yourself drama.

Poots plays Ellie, a young Los Angeles woman with an underachieving job and a lousy boyfriend who takes her for granted. She hears that her estranged father has become gravely ill, and we learn that she has escaped a Texas childhood with an alcoholic father.  Her brother (Shea Whigham) also lives in Los Angeles; he is flourishing and doesn’t care a whit about their father – the brother has moved on from his upbringing.  But Ellie is a poster girl for low-self esteem, and she feels obligated to travel to her father’s bedside.

Ryan Bingham in A COUNTRY CALLED HOME
Ryan Bingham in A COUNTRY CALLED HOME

Once in Texas, she finds that her father has just passed, leaving the detritus of his alcoholic life.   Everything in her old hometown is trashy, complicated or just plain unsupportive.  She meets a misfit wannabe singer-songwriter (Mackenzie Davis, unrecognizable from Bad Turn Worse).  And there’s a pressured-out single dad played by the sad-eyed Ryan Bingham (the Oscar-winning songwriter for Crazy Heart).

A Country Called Home is the debut feature for director and co-writer Anna Axster, and it’s a successful and engaging study of a woman finally emerging from a childhood with an alcoholic parent.   It turns out that, to move on with her life, she needed another look at where she came from.

A Country Called Home can be streamed from Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.  And last week’s Stream of the Week, Frank & Lola, is also available from those same streaming services.

https://youtu.be/LlT9CWKAUCI

Stream of the Week: A COUNTRY CALLED HOME – to move on, she needs another look at her past

by
Imogen Poots in A COUNTRY CALLED HOME
Imogen Poots in A COUNTRY CALLED HOME

This week’s video recommendation is a totally overlooked drama from earlier this year, A Country Called Home. Somehow A Country Called Home missed out on any significant theatrical release even though it’s a very satisfying Finding Yourself drama.

Imogen Poots plays Ellie, a young Los Angeles woman with an underachieving job and a lousy boyfriend who takes her for granted. She hears that her estranged father has become gravely ill, and we learn that she has escaped a Texas childhood with an alcoholic father. Her brother (Shea Whigham) also lives in Los Angeles; he is flourishing and doesn’t care a whit about their father – the brother has moved on from his upbringing. But Ellie is a poster girl for low-self esteem, and she feels obligated to travel to her father’s bedside.

Ryan Bingham in A COUNTRY CALLED HOME
Ryan Bingham in A COUNTRY CALLED HOME

Once in Texas, she finds that her father has just passed, leaving the detritus of his alcoholic life. Everything in her old hometown is trashy, complicated or just plain unsupportive. She meets a misfit wannabe singer-songwriter (Mackenzie Davis unrecognizable from Bad Turn Worse). And there’s a pressured-out single dad played by the sad-eyed Ryan Bingham (the Oscar-winning songwriter for Crazy Heart).

A Country Called Home is the debut feature for director and co-writer Anna Axster, and it’s a successful and engaging study of a woman finally emerging from a childhood with an alcoholic parent. It turns out that, to move on with her life, she needed another look at where she came from.

A Country Called Home can be streamed from Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

https://youtu.be/LlT9CWKAUCI

DVD/Stream of the Week: The Spectacular Now

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THE SPECTACULAR NOW

Here’s number 5 on my Best Movies of 2013. The Spectacular Now is a spectacularly authentic and insightful character-driven story of teen self-discovery. It’s the best teen coming of age story since…I can’t remember.

Sutter (Miles Teller – so good in Rabbit Hole) is the high school’s gregarious party guy. Everybody loves being charmed by Sutter, but it becomes apparent that his compulsive sociability is masking some family related emotional damage. It’s also clear that he will soon face some consequences from his out-of-control and escalating drinking.

When his popular girlfriend dumps him for a guy who is less fun, but a better long-term bet, he is in the market for a rebound relationship and meets Aimee (Shailene Woodley, glammed down from the foxy brat in The Descendants). Aimee is focused, responsible, capable and smart, but has no self-esteem; she has family issues, too. Sutter becomes her first love. At first, it’s a lark for Sutter – until he assesses himself and his potential effect on her.

That’s the crux of the movie. Sutter isn’t just a shallow party guy. He’s smart – and too smart to keep from seeing where he is headed.

The Spectacular Now is directed by indie filmmaker Joe Ponsoldt (director and co-writer of Smashed), who is moving toward Hollywood’s A list. The screenplay is adapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber from the novel by Tim Tharp.

Smashed is a remarkably realistic depiction of alcohol abuse, and so is The Spectacular Now. Miles Teller is great in the role. And there’s a second great alcoholic performance – that of Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Argo) as Sutter’s long-estranged dad; Chandler’s turn is Oscar worthy. Woodley is just as outstanding as she was in The Descendants. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent, especially Brie Larson and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

If you see The Spectacular Now with your teen, there will be plenty to talk about afterward – teen drinking, addiction, dating, partying, picking your friends, making choices and what a damn good movie this is.

Every teenager should see this movie, which brings me to this bit of insanity – The Spectacular Now has an R rating because teenagers are DRINKING ALCOHOL in the movie. It doesn’t matter that the movie is ABOUT teen alcoholism. It doesn’t matter that The Spectacular Now is the 2013 movie most likely to help teenagers in their real lives (by sparking discussion of the issues therein). Of course, just last year, the MPAA similarly assigned the R Rating to Bully. Just leave it to the pompous asses at the MPAA to keep those 14- to 16-year-olds out (unless they show the good taste and resourcefulness to sneak in).

I saw The Spectacular Now at the San Francisco International Film Festival in a screening with director Ponsoldt. It’s now available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, GooglePlay and Xbox Video.

The Spectacular Now: every teen should see this movie (and the rest of us, too)

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THE SPECTACULAR NOW

The Spectacular Now is a spectacularly authentic and insightful character-driven story of teen self-discovery.  It’s the best teen coming of age story since…I can’t remember.

Sutter (Miles Teller – so good in Rabbit Hole) is the high school’s gregarious party guy.  Everybody loves being charmed by Sutter, but it becomes apparent that his compulsive sociability is masking some family related emotional damage.  It’s also clear that he will soon face some consequences from his out-of-control and escalating drinking.

When his popular girlfriend dumps him for a guy who is less fun, but a better long-term bet, he is in the market for a rebound relationship and meets Aimee (Shailene Woodley, glammed down from the foxy brat in The Descendants).  Aimee is focused, responsible, capable and smart, but has no self-esteem; she has family issues, too.  Sutter becomes her first love.  At first, it’s a lark for Sutter – until he assesses himself and his potential effect on her.

That’s the crux of the movie.  Sutter isn’t just a shallow party guy.  He’s smart – and too smart to keep from seeing where he is headed.

The Spectacular Now is directed by indie filmmaker Joe Ponsoldt (director and co-writer of Smashed), who is moving toward Hollywood’s A list.  The screenplay is adapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber from the novel by Tim Tharp.

Smashed is a remarkably realistic depiction of alcohol abuse, and so is The Spectacular Now.  Miles Teller is great in the role.  And there’s a second great alcoholic performance  – that of Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Argo) as Sutter’s long-estranged dad; Chandler’s turn is Oscar worthy.  Woodley is just as outstanding as she was in The Descendants. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent, especially Brie Larson and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

If you see The Spectacular Now with your teen, there will be plenty to talk about afterward – teen drinking, addiction, dating, partying, picking your friends, making choices and what a damn good movie this is.

Every teenager should see this movie, which brings me to this bit of insanity – The Spectacular Now has an R rating because teenagers are DRINKING ALCOHOL in the movie.  It doesn’t matter that the movie is ABOUT teen alcoholism.  It doesn’t matter that The Spectacular Now is the 2013 movie most likely to help teenagers in their real lives (by sparking discussion of the issues therein).  Of course, just last year, the MPAA similarly assigned the R Rating to Bully.  Just leave it to the pompous asses at the MPAA to keep those 14- to 16-year-olds out (unless they show the good taste and resourcefulness to sneak in).

I saw The Spectacular Now at the San Francisco International Film Festival in a screening with director Ponsoldt.  It’s on my Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.

DVD of the Week: Smashed

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In this indie drama, a couple navigates life while drunk.  Can they stay together and flourish when she sobers up?  Smashed is a remarkably realistic portrayal of the drinking life and the challenges of recovery and relapse, informed by the personal experience of co-writer Susan Burke.

The best thing about Smashed is the performance of Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the wife.  Winstead realistically takes her character through the carelessness, denial, humiliation and self-degradation of drinking and the fears and determination that co-exist in her recovery.  It’s a stellar performance, and I’ll be looking for Winstead in bigger roles.

Also very good are Nick Offerman as the wife’s colleague, Megan Mullally, unrecognizable as the wife’s boss, and the always delightful Octavia Spencer.

As The Wife pointed out, the amount of time that director and co-writer James Ponsoldt spent on the drinking part of the story means that lots of plot points whiz by in the final ten minutes.  Still, Smashed is very watchable and benefits from the breakthrough performance by Winstead.  It’s available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes and other VOD providers.

2012 in the Movies: the year of the alcoholic

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Octavia Spencer in SMASHED

An extraordinary group of 2012 movies featured searingly realistic depictions of alcoholism.  The indie drama Smashed portrayed the drinking life and the challenges of recovery and relapse, informed by the personal experience of co-writer Susan Burke.  In a potentially star-making performance, Mary Elizabeth Winstead played half of a couple navigating life while drunk.  Can they stay together and flourish when she sobers up?  Winstead realistically took her character through the carelessness, denial, humiliation and self-degradation of drinking and the fears and determination that co-exist in her recovery.

A much bigger movie, the Hollywood hit Flight, takes on deceit’s centrality to alcoholism, and Denzel Washington brilliantly evokes the protagonist’s achingly vulnerable loneliness and self-loathing.

The excellent documentary Bill W. tells the story of Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and it’s quite a story.  Wilson was a reluctant movement leader. His primary passion was for business, in which his drinking killed his potential success. Instead, he achieved fame and historical importance in a field not of his choosing. As the founder, he could have easily formed AA into a hierarchy with himself at the top – and AA as his personal power base. But, once AA could stand on its own, he chose to walk away from its leadership.

The appealing documentary Paul Williams Still Alive, tells the story of the songwriter, omnipresent in the 70s, but not now.  Paul Williams is now twenty years sober and very content in his skin; he doesn’t dwell on the time when he was rich, famous and unhappy.

And in the overlooked Take This Waltz, Sarah Silverman co-stars the protagonist’s sister-in-law, a recovering alcoholic whose relapse sparks a fierce moment of truth telling.

Smashed: life is better when sober, but still messy

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In this indie drama, a couple navigates life while drunk.  Can they stay together and flourish when she sobers up?  Smashed is a remarkably realistic portrayal of the drinking life and the challenges of recovery and relapse, informed by the personal experience of co-writer Susan Burke.

The best thing about Smashed is the performance of Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the wife.  Winstead realistically takes her character through the carelessness, denial, humiliation and self-degradation of drinking and the fears and determination that co-exist in her recovery.  It’s a stellar performance, and I’ll be looking for Winstead in bigger roles.

Also very good are Nick Offerman as the wife’s colleague, Megan Mullally, unrecognizable as the wife’s boss, and the always delightful Octavia Spencer.

As The Wife pointed out, the amount of time that director and co-writer James Ponsoldt spent on the drinking part of the story means that lots of plot points whiz by in the final ten minutes.  Still, Smashed is very watchable and benefits from the breakthrough performance by Winstead.

Touching Home

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Touching Home is a little movie with a big performance by Ed Harris  The film was written and directed by and stars the Miller twins, Logan and Noah, who tell the story of their own alcoholic father.  The authenticity of the writing and Harris’ performance make this an exceptionally realistic depiction of alcoholism.

Touching Home was also shot on location in the Miller’s home turf of western Marin County, California, around Lagunitas and Bodega.  Those familiar with West Marin will recognize many locations.

This week's DVD pick: Crazy Heart

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Crazy Heart: This is a very good movie with a great, Oscar-winning performance by Jeff Bridges and a great score.  It’s also a realistic depiction of alcoholism and its consequences.  Maggie Gyllenhaal shines as always.  Colin Farrell is shockingly believable as a contemporary country music star.