In "Please Give", Holofcener standby Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt play a married couple who buy dead people's furniture from their surviving children and then sell it on. They're waiting for the old woman in the apartment below them to die so they can buy it. Her granddaughters, played by Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet, are also kind of just waiting around for the old lady to die, because she's not exactly pleasant.
Keener and Platt have a moody and insecure daughter played by Sarah Steele, in the first role I ever saw her in. I love Sarah Steele. She plays an insecure adolescent here because she doesn't have razor sharp cheekbones and collarbones. Instead she's merely adorable. She gets a facial which makes her face all red.
Nicole Holofcener has said that the character Catherine Keener plays in "Please Give" is the one most closely based on her. She's someone who is guilty about her upper middle-class background and goes out of her way to do the right thing, sometimes embarrassing herself in the process, like when she tries to give a black man food because she assumes he is homeless, when he's just waiting for a table.
This character is the quintessential Holofcener character. She's a good person, trying to do the right thing, but not always getting it right. Her imperfections only make us like her more because we can see how much she's trying.
Todd Solondz and Holofcener both make indie dramedies about the relationships between upper middle class people, but Holofcener's movies aren't unremittingly dark and depressing like Solondz's. As such, I'd never really compared them before. The comparison seemed superficial at best. With "Please Give", though, it really seemed valid. Holofcener's movie has moments like the aforementioned scene with the not-homeless-man that open the door for some real darkness and human frailty made bare. Holofcener lets you realise that door is open, but doesn't go through it. Solondz shoves you through.
Maybe it's a sign I'm getting older. I used to worship Solondz, but now I am really grateful for Holofcener. There's almost something spiritual with her movies. They remind you we all fall short, but it's the trying that's beautiful, and we all need to try.
There's not much else to say about "Please Give". I think I've described every memorable scene. You know what to expect from a Nicole Holofcener movie. They're like cinematic comfort food. They don't shy away from realities of life, and in doing so they help you accept them. It's like an antidote to those "feel good" Hollywood movies, which only ever make me feel worse.
Keener and Platt have a moody and insecure daughter played by Sarah Steele, in the first role I ever saw her in. I love Sarah Steele. She plays an insecure adolescent here because she doesn't have razor sharp cheekbones and collarbones. Instead she's merely adorable. She gets a facial which makes her face all red.
Nicole Holofcener has said that the character Catherine Keener plays in "Please Give" is the one most closely based on her. She's someone who is guilty about her upper middle-class background and goes out of her way to do the right thing, sometimes embarrassing herself in the process, like when she tries to give a black man food because she assumes he is homeless, when he's just waiting for a table.
This character is the quintessential Holofcener character. She's a good person, trying to do the right thing, but not always getting it right. Her imperfections only make us like her more because we can see how much she's trying.
Todd Solondz and Holofcener both make indie dramedies about the relationships between upper middle class people, but Holofcener's movies aren't unremittingly dark and depressing like Solondz's. As such, I'd never really compared them before. The comparison seemed superficial at best. With "Please Give", though, it really seemed valid. Holofcener's movie has moments like the aforementioned scene with the not-homeless-man that open the door for some real darkness and human frailty made bare. Holofcener lets you realise that door is open, but doesn't go through it. Solondz shoves you through.
Maybe it's a sign I'm getting older. I used to worship Solondz, but now I am really grateful for Holofcener. There's almost something spiritual with her movies. They remind you we all fall short, but it's the trying that's beautiful, and we all need to try.
There's not much else to say about "Please Give". I think I've described every memorable scene. You know what to expect from a Nicole Holofcener movie. They're like cinematic comfort food. They don't shy away from realities of life, and in doing so they help you accept them. It's like an antidote to those "feel good" Hollywood movies, which only ever make me feel worse.