SUNDANCE 2016: Capone checks out the Norman Lear doc JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU, and the cancer drama OTHER PEOPLE!!!

Hey everyone. Capone in Park City, Utah once again attending the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Day One has just wrapped…

NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU



Those familiar with pop culture since the 1950s don’t need a documentary to recount all of the dozens of ways that writer-producer-creator-activist Norman Lear has changed not only the face of television but also the way we view and judge other people who perhaps don’t look or think like us. The show titles alone tell a big part of the story: “All in the Family,” “Good Times,” “Sanford & Son,” “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “Maude,” “The Jeffersons,” “One Day at a Time,” but the doc NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU fills in a great many of the blanks, sources of inspiration for many of Lear’s greatest characters, and a personal history with bigotry that illuminates some of his finest writing.

From the directing team of Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (DETROPIA, JESUS CAMP, THE BOYS OF BARAKA), the film goes through Lear’s childhood, with his emotionally distant father to his early years in television, working on the “Colgate Comedy Hour,” “The Martha Raye Show,” and “The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show.” There’s a surprising amount of archival footage and images throughout the film of Lear at work and at home with his second wife and children. Frances Lear was a noted publisher and feminist, who quietly influenced some of Norman’s best writing, particularly on the series “Maude” (Frances was said to be an inspiration for the character).

It’s genuinely surprising how many of Lear’s series were inspired by real people in his life or trends he was seeing in the culture that troubled him. Archie Bunker was clearly inspired by his father; even “The Jeffersons” came out of criticism about “Good Times” for only showing a poor black family on television. Rather than simply show clips from memorable moments on the shows, the directors have Lear or others involved in the series watching them on a big screen and reacting to them, often quite emotionally.

There’s a wealth of valuable footage of Lear working behind the scenes of his various shows at table reads, story conferences, consult—sometimes arguing—with his actors about certain moments. Esther Role from “Good Times” was constantly challenging Lear’s portrayal of African-Americans in an effort to make the show feel more authentic. The filmmakers mix new interviews with Lear with old talk show appearances, and do a fairly solid job of drawing a beautifully rounded portrait of an incendiary artist. There’s perhaps a bit too much in JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU about his third wife and newest kids—it’s clear that they’re important to him, but knowing that doesn’t add much to the film.

There are also these strange little inserts through the film of a young boy wearing Lear’s now-famous white hat, going through a few moments in Lear’s early life that aren’t so much traditional re-creations but more surreal interpretations of mood and insight. It doesn’t really work the way I think the filmmakers want it to, but they are scattered throughout and don’t really distract us from the more interesting work being illustrated.

Overall, however, the film (which carried the “American Masters” banner on it, so look for it on PBS later this year) is an exquisite look at one of the great creative instigators of our times. And if you need something handsome to look at—not that Lear isn’t a striking figure even in his 90s—George Clooney is all over this thing as a quite eloquent commentator on Lear’s substantial impact on the times he worked in. There’s a great deal to like, and it was a great way to kick of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.


OTHER PEOPLE



Although it features some genuinely strong, heartfelt performances from the likes of Jesse Plemons and Molly Shannon, the feature debut from writer-director Chris Kelly (an Upright Citizens Brigade alum and former writer on “Saturday Night Live” and “Broad City”) is a ferocious mess of a film that misses many of its emotional beats in an effort to tell a story of a mother and son coping with her inevitable death from cancer.

Plemons plays David, a struggling comedy writer, UCB alum, and obvious stand in for the filmmaker. David also happens to be gay, a fact that his father (Bradley Whitford) can barely even contemplate, let alone say the words or acknowledge that David has a long-term boyfriend, Paul (“Silicon Valley’s” Zach Woods). David lives in New York but essentially moves back home to Sacramento to help take care of his mom, Joanne (Shannon), with the help of his two sisters (played by Maude Apatow and Madisen Beaty.

You can’t help but feel bad that this story is likely inspired by true events, but it doesn’t attempt to dig deeper into the day-to-day issues in coping with a sick loved one--certainly not in the devastating way that last year’s JAMES WHITE did. But OTHER PEOPLE leaves too many of its most interesting character unexplored, in particular David’s sisters, who even give him crap about being so wrapped up in his own drama to bother to ask about their lives or how they are coping with their mother's illness. David is certainly not drawn as a perfect person or son, but any depth in the character comes out of Plemons's hard work as an actor and not from the paint-by-number screenplay.

Some of the film’s finest moments has nothing to do with the mom's cancer at all; it come in a sequence back in New York when David takes his family to see him perform improv with his troupe (UCB) and go back to his apartment to meet Paul. Even thought the couple has broken up, Paul loves this family and agrees to pretend they are still dating, only so Joanne believes he’ll be in good hands after she dies. There’s something about the way David and Paul communicate and work so well together that is highly entertaining and a great portrayal of fully rounded gay characters in a movie. I wish more of the film had been about this relationship than the largely inconsequential way David’s family is presented here.

I’m sure if you’ve ever dealt with a situation like the one presented in OTHER PEOPLE, your emotions will likely surrender to the wonderful performance Shannon gives of a slowly dying but still strong woman, but the way David puts his own issues so often in front of the great sadness the rest of his family is feeling is sometimes distracting. In addition, the way Kelly attempts to lighten the mood of the overall film by including wacky relatives (played by the likes of Kerri Kenney, June Squibb and Paul Dooley) to characters like young Justin (J.J. Totah of “Glee”), who will likely be an audience favorite, but might be a bit too stereotypical for his own good. To make matters worse, the actual improv sequences goes on forever and is in no way funny.

Produced by Adam Scott and Naomi Scott, OTHER PEOPLE is the first work from their production company that doesn’t feature Adam in it (like last year’s THE OVERNIGHT did). There are so many actors I like in this that not to root for the film to improve seems unfair. It doesn’t stick its landing, but it does get better as it goes on. All that said, the film still feels like an endless, sometimes unfeeling entity, which seems to care more about jerking tears from your eyes than earning them with deeply written characters and, frankly, better improv comedy. Aside from a few key performances, nothing quite clicks how it should, and there’s no way I could recommend seeing it unless you're just curious to see a truly interesting actor in Plemmons, attempting a type of character I’ve never seen him play.

-- Steve Prokopy
"Capone"
capone@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter