"Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" -- Movie Review

 

This week at Film At Lincoln Center, I attended a screening of the new comedy-drama “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”, starring Emma Thompson. 

Synopsis

When a widow hires a professional escort to experience a sexual awakening late in life, can they find a deeper connection?

Story

Nancy (Thompson) was faithfully married for over 30 years before her husband died.  Together, they raised a son and a daughter, both of whom became responsible adults.  While the couple may have kept their “until death do us part pledge”, she found the whole experience deeply unsatisfying and unfulfilling.  This is largely because as a religious education teacher, she had little sexual experience prior to her marriage and her late husband didn’t really know – or care – about how to fulfill his wife’s needs.  Now that she’s all alone, Nancy is trying to make up for quite a bit of lost time.  This is why she’s hired Leo Grande. 

Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) is what you might consider an independent contractor.  Or perhaps a leisure consultant.  To some, he may be a therapist of some sort. Professional consort, if you prefer.  In any event, Nancy hires this young man in order to give her the best sexual experience of her life.  Since she feels that she’s missed out on so much, Nancy believes that she must now take advantage of her freedom to make up for quite a bit of lost time.  Leo is more than happy to oblige – for a price, of course.  After all, he’s an entrepreneur with a business to run.  He sells a service for which many gladly pay.   

Over time, Nancy hires Leo for his extraordinary professional services; the teacher now finds herself to be the student.  But she suddenly finds herself wanting more.  Who is this unusual young man and how did he wind up in this line of work?  As a way to draw him out, Nancy reveals to him quite a bit of intimate personal information; while she hopes he will reciprocate, he only shares so much and is careful not to provide too much that would compromise his situation.  Eventually, it becomes clear to Leo that Nancy is expecting much more from him than he can give.  When he refuses to have any more sessions with her, will Nancy still be looking for her first ever orgasm?

Review

“Leo Grande” is a pleasant but predictable comedy-drama that’s equally sex-positive, body-positive and age-positive; it also does not take a judgmental or patronizing view of sex workers.  For all of those reasons, it should be commended, but note that there are few surprises and the story goes just about the way you think it’s going to go; if you’re waiting for big twists and turns here, you’ll be sorely disappointed.  Nevertheless, it’s quite enjoyable in a way that doesn’t really demand much from the audience.  What’s also no surprise here is how absolutely excellent Emma Thompson is utterly excellent. 

One drawback to the film – and it’s a fairly obvious one – is the fact that it has the look and feel of a play.  This is because the overwhelming majority of “Leo Grand” takes place in a hotel room – in fact the same hotel room in every scene.  As a result, it clearly feels a bit claustrophobic; there are definitely attempts to open it up a bit more, but given the way the script is written, there’s really very little that the director could do to take us outside of that space.  Granted, the idea here is that the relationship between these characters only exists in that hotel room, but it feels like it could have been shot as the performance of a stage play. 

This movie had its New York Premiere recently at this year's Tribeca Film Festival; if you are interested in seeing “Leo Grande”, it is currently streaming on Hulu.  At only about an hour and a half, it doesn’t ask much of your time.  It’s entertaining but in no way challenging, so if you’re looking for something light and buoyantly entertaining, so long as you don’t go in expecting a great deal of belly laughs; it is more amusing than it is actually funny, despite the attempts by Thompson’s character to appear embarrassingly awkward sexually.  This with the older woman-younger man fantasy should find this one deeply satisfying.    

 

"Babysitter" -- Movie Review

 

On the closing weekend of the Tribeca Film Festival, I attended the New York premiere of the French-Canadian comedy, “Babysitter”.

Synopsis

When a man is forced to care for his newborn baby, what impact will it have on his family when he hires a seductive babysitter to assist him?

Story

With his partner Nadine left at home to breastfeed their newborn daughter, Cedric opts for a boys-night-out at a boxing match.  After having had too much to drink, he gets caught on-camera kissing Chantal, a television reporter there to cover the event.  Since his transgression was televised, there was no way Cedric could deny the deed – and to make matters worse, his employer saw it all and decides to suspend him from his engineering job, pending an investigation.  Nadine takes this opportunity to go back to work and leave Cedric to care for the baby – but when she realizes that she has no interest in returning to the office, she instead checks into a motel and indulges in some much-needed self-care. 

Before too long, Cedric comes to the bitter realization that he has very little in the way of paternal instincts.  Each day, he struggles to care for the little one, much to her detriment; clearly, he was not made to be a stay-at-home dad.  Seeking out a babysitter to help him at home, he hires Amy – a sexy 22-year-old with no boyfriend or family; at first, she doesn’t immediately seem much more capable of caring for the baby than he does, but that soon changes when he sees how positively his daughter responds to her.  Getting suspicious about what’s happening at home, Nadine checks-out of her motel and returns to keep an eye on both her daughter and her husband.

With some free time, Cedric decides to write a book about misogyny – and engages his journalist brother Jean-Michel to co-author it with him.  Soon, Jean-Michel moves in with them to work on the book full time.  It becomes rather evident that Amy is behaving in some rather seductive ways with the adults in the house – everyone finds it a major distraction when she decides to show up for work wearing a sexy French maid costume.  Eventually, the book gets published but Cedric is dejected when Jean-Michel gets all of the credit.  With Amy noticing that the romance is deteriorating between Cedric and Nadine, will she be able to do anything to revive their relationship?   

Review

“Babysitter” is an attempt at a crazy, sexy French romantic comedy in the “Me Too” era – unfortunately, it manages to fail on all attempts.  Crazy?  Perhaps.  But sexy?  No.  Comedy?  Absolutely not!  There are obvious stabs at being comedic by exaggerated facial reactions and so forth, but none of them work.  It’s too bad because given the premise, the filmmakers may have missed a bet here – on the other hand, it’s difficult to make fun of the “Me Too” movement without offending people who were adversely affected by it.  The movie also seems to be trying to say that the political correctness of “Me Too” may have gotten out of hand. 

This movie is an adaptation of a stage play by Catherine Léger, who is credited as the screenwriter on “Babysitter”.  Director Monia Chokri (who also appears as Cedric’s partner Nadine) saw the original stage version and decided she had to bring it to the screen.  According to the IMDB notes, Chokri opened it up a bit, changing only a few trivial items.  As Amy, Nadia Tereszkiewicz certainly does seem to have something of a “Lolita-esque” quality about her, being simultaneously alluring and innocent, while maintaining an air of mystery.  Her character compared herself to Bardot – not unfairly or inaccurately.    

The ending is also somewhat problematic – that is to say, problematic in the sense that it is puzzling.  In the last few moments of “Babysitter”, we see a gaggle of nubile young women roller skating throughout the streets of this Montreal neighborhood.  What this is supposed to mean – or allude to – remains something of a mystery.  Are we to understand that Cedric’s next temptation is soon to come?  Does it mean that these seemingly carefree teenage girls will not have to suffer under the yoke of male oppression once they come of age?  Or does it reference something else only the filmmaker understands.  Yes, maybe it’s better to go with that one. 

"Somewhere In Queens" -- Movie Review

 

On the first weekend of the Tribeca Festival, I attended the World Premiere of the new comedy “Somewhere In Queens”, the directorial debut of Ray Romano. 

Synopsis

When a father gets overly involved in his basketball star son’s athletic career, will his micromanagement destroy the family? 

Story

The Russos live in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens in New York City.  This proud Italian-American family is tightly-knit, enjoying a large family dinner every Sunday.  Leo (Romano) is especially proud of his son Matthew (Jacob Ward), who’s nicknamed “Sticks” because of his long legs.  As a senior in high school, Sticks has gained quite a reputation as a talented basketball player for his school’s less-than-stellar team.  Leo expects that Sticks will probably join him working for the family’s construction company upon graduation – but things abruptly change when he learns that Sticks has been gaining support from top college scouts.

After a few phone calls are made, one of the scouts gets Sticks a tryout at Drexel University in Philadelphia.  Leo and his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf) take Sticks to the school for a preliminary interview with the school’s athletic director.  It is decided that if Sticks performs well at the tryout, he will be offered a scholarship.  Leo has his sights set on Sticks not only being a star basketball player for the university, but also, getting a college education – something which he never quite managed to get for himself.  But a monkey wrench is thrown into those plans when Sticks learns that his girlfriend Dani (Sadie Stanley) has dumped him.

Leo needs Sticks to succeed – in part, because he wants his son to have a better life than he’s had.  But to be honest, it’s mostly because he now finds himself living his life through his son – Leo may want this for Sticks more than Sticks himself does.  Depressed and distraught over the loss of Dani, Sticks won’t play his best at the tryout.  As a result, Leo convinces Dani to stay with Sticks just a few weeks longer until he gets the tryout behind him.  Once Sticks gets passed the tryout, Dani immediately breaks up with him – again.  But when Sticks discovers that his father coerced Dani into remaining with him just to get by the tryout, how will this impact their family?

Review

Despite having an awkwardly mawkish and melodramatic third act, “Somewhere In Queens” is a delightfully entertaining movie.  Most of the script is quite good – well-structured with humor and drama in equal measure in all of the right parts.  In his directorial debut, Romano succeeds in telling a story that is so clearly very close to his heart.  Much of the reason why the film works is because of its authenticity; if you have grown up in New York City – and especially the borough of Queens – then these people are real to you.  You know who they are even if you’ve never even met any of them. 

To be clear, while there are moments in “Somewhere In Queens” that are quite funny, it is far from being an all-out comedy.  The humorous moments are blended with the serious ones and there is hardly a false note in any of them.  In that sense, it is recognizable because it is so much like life itself.  Romano’s gift is telling a universally human story, just as he did with his successful television show, “Everybody Loves Raymond”.  In fact, if you were a fan of that show, then it is likely you will love this film because the dysfunctionality of family members is on full display all throughout. 

Ray Romano appeared for an interview after the screening.  His co-writer was one of the writers from the show “Men Of A Certain Age” and he said that it took them a long time to write the script, in part because it was interrupted by Covid.  Initially, Romano was not interested in directing the movie; eventually, his agent convinced him to direct because the story was so personal.  Casting his son was a long process; there were many callbacks over the course of a month and a half.  When the actor finally found out he got the role it was when he got a call from his agent while he was in his car working to make a Post Mates food delivery. 

 

"God's Time" -- Movie Review

 

On the opening weekend of the Tribeca Festival, I attended the World Premiere of the comedy “God’s Time”. 

Synopsis

When a pair of friends realize a mutual acquaintance might be planning something dangerous, will they be able to thwart her and maintain their bromance?

Story

Dev and Luca are best friends.  One of the things they have in common is the fact that they are both recovering drug addicts.  Together, they attend therapy meetings for fellow former drug abusers currently in recovery.  During one of the sessions, they hear a remarkable admission from Regina, one of the members.  Having broken up with her live-in boyfriend, she was forced to find a new apartment – and to add insult to injury, not only did he take her old apartment, he took her dog, as well.  Now, Regina wants revenge – she opens up during one meeting confessing that she has fantasized about shooting him. 

Understandably, both Dev and Luca are alarmed by hearing this.  Neither one of them want Regina to follow through on her insidious plan – mostly because they are both in love with her and don’t want to see her wind up in prison for murder.  So, for their own very selfish reasons, the two men set out to try to either talk Regina out of killing her ex-boyfriend or to find a way to somehow sabotage her plans.  Meanwhile, both men are trying to live out their own best life, too.  Luca is pursuing a career as an actor and seeks to schedule as many auditions as he possibly can.  Dev, on the other hand, is simply trying to avoid some stranger with whom he got into a traffic altercation. 

Eventually, Dev and Luca learn that Regina does in fact have access to a gun.  They plot to break into her apartment to take the gun away from her – but when Regina mistakes the two for burglars, she accidentally shoots Luca in the arm.  They rush Luca to the hospital for treatment – but once he is discharged, they discover that Regina’s ex-boyfriend is confronting her in the parking lot.  Although Dev and Luca try to play the role of peacemakers, anger and resentment take over when it becomes clear that the men are competing for the affections of Regina.  Can they somehow manage to overcome their differences and keep Regina from shooting her ex-boyfriend?  In the aftermath, will their friendship survive?

Review

“God’s Time” is a 2022 comedy which should not be confused with the 2015 motion picture “In God’s Time”, which is a drama, despite the fact that both derive their title from the same phrase.  The distinction in genre raises an interesting point about the film that appeared at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival because it’s a bit of a mistake to identify this as a comedy (or comedy-drama) in any notion.  Perhaps it takes its identity as a comedy from the fact that the character of Dev is written and performed in such an over-the-top manner that it might give the impression of a comedy.  In fact, it is not; it is mostly a serious drama and not all that funny, either. 

The movie seems rather schizophrenic because of this; on the one hand, the writer/director Daniel Antebi appears to want to make a film featuring a crazy character like Dev at its center, yet also wanted to tell a serious story about desperate, down-on-their luck characters.  The lighter moments that Dev attempts seem tone-deaf for the rest of the motion picture; there are two different stories here in search of a genre and when blended together, the film as a whole doesn’t work.  If “God’s Time” had focused solely on being a drama, it might have found more success.  As it is, it feels like a fable about drug addicts seen through the eyes of an addict. 

A positive note about this film is the cast; the performances are quite good and the characters give the appearance of a real chemistry.  Particularly good is newcomer Liz Caribel Sierra in the role of Regina; all at once she conveys toughness, sensitivity and sensuality to fully develop her character and make Regina feel quite authentic.  As stated, the character of Dev, as portrayed by Ben Groh, is very animated, giving one the sense that this guy is totally coked-up most of the time.  Dion Costelloe as Luca is a stark contrast to his best friend; understated, he emits an earnest nature – someone dedicated to improving his life.