A sweet, sad movie about a single man who learns a bit about how tough it is to be a parent when he takes charge of his nephew for a while.
Joaquin Phoenix is the uncle, and he's good, but it's Gaby Hoffmann, playing his sister, and especially little Woody Norman, as the nephew, who steal the show. It's the rare movie that takes children and their thoughts about the world seriously, and it also taps into the anxiety of raising children into a very uncertain future.
People are really responding very emotionally to this film if Internet film sites are any indication, and I can understand why, though it didn't personally resonate with me that much. It's the kind of movie that people bring a lot of themselves to and I imagine any one person's response to it will be greatly affected by their own circumstances in the moment. Though I guess that can be said of any movie anytime.
I did find it weird that, in a movie that's so about the anxiety of the times, there isn't a single mention of Covid. You never see people wearing masks, no one talks about it. This year I've really noticed the disconnect between movies set in present day and the world the way it actually looks right now. It's strange that filmmakers are completely ignoring something that is so dominating every single person's life and has changed the world as much as it has.
Grade: A-
Joaquin Phoenix is the uncle, and he's good, but it's Gaby Hoffmann, playing his sister, and especially little Woody Norman, as the nephew, who steal the show. It's the rare movie that takes children and their thoughts about the world seriously, and it also taps into the anxiety of raising children into a very uncertain future.
People are really responding very emotionally to this film if Internet film sites are any indication, and I can understand why, though it didn't personally resonate with me that much. It's the kind of movie that people bring a lot of themselves to and I imagine any one person's response to it will be greatly affected by their own circumstances in the moment. Though I guess that can be said of any movie anytime.
I did find it weird that, in a movie that's so about the anxiety of the times, there isn't a single mention of Covid. You never see people wearing masks, no one talks about it. This year I've really noticed the disconnect between movies set in present day and the world the way it actually looks right now. It's strange that filmmakers are completely ignoring something that is so dominating every single person's life and has changed the world as much as it has.
Grade: A-