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Film Search
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First, and most obvious: Was there any particular reason for Gillian Robespierre and Elisabeth Holm’s screenplay to be set in 1995, and provide multiple signifiers for that era? Mostly, it’s a story of the Jacobs family of Manhattan: oldest daughter Dana (Jenny Slate), engaged to marry Ben (Jay Duplass); teenage daughter Ali (Abby Quinn), experimenting with youthful rebellion; and their parents Alan (John Turturro) and Pat (Edie Falco). Much of the plot turns on Abi’s discovery that her father may be having an affair, and the story is at its most affecting as the two sisters—presumably a decade apart in age—bond for perhaps the first time over their shared familial crisis. It’s unfortunate that Robespierre (who also directed) spreads the story so thin—including Dana’s doubts about her impending marriage—in a way that doesn’t seem to recognize how the sisters’ story carries all the narrative energy. The same off-beat verve and humor goes a long way here, as it did in the Robespierre/Slate collaboration Obvious Child, making it easier to overlook scattered storytelling, and one too many nudging references to pay phones, floppy disks and CD listening stations.
Official Site: www.landlinemovie.com
Director: Gillian Robespierre
Producer: Elisabeth Holm, Russell Levine, Gigi Pritzker, Christopher Lytton, Natalya Petrosova, Gillian Robespierre and Rachel Shane
Cast: Jenny Slate, John Turturro, Edie Falco, Abby Quinn, Jay Duplass, Finn Wittrock, Amy Carlson and Ali Ahn
Director: Gillian Robespierre
Producer: Elisabeth Holm, Russell Levine, Gigi Pritzker, Christopher Lytton, Natalya Petrosova, Gillian Robespierre and Rachel Shane
Cast: Jenny Slate, John Turturro, Edie Falco, Abby Quinn, Jay Duplass, Finn Wittrock, Amy Carlson and Ali Ahn
