I went to a screening with a Q&A session at the IFC; it was my first time there. In fact, I stumbled upon it by chance while taking a aimless stroll; there are a great many movie theaters in the Union Square and Washington Square Park area. It is one of the few theaters I’ve visited where the internet actually works inside the auditorium. Furthermore, compared to AMC or Regal, I found them to be much more organized when it came to lining up for special screenings.
As for the film itself, I didn't care for it much. I didn't like any of the characters—which is a problem when the entire premise revolves around a marriage and you are supposed to empathize with that relationship. Because of this, all the emotional moments or scenes of high dramatic intensity fell quite flat.
Director: Katie Aselton
Writers: Katie Aselton, Mark Duplass
Stars: Katie Aselton, Daveed Diggs, Brad Garrett
Nor do I think the opening scene did enough to build chemistry or a connection between the protagonists, so the emotional foundation never really resonated with me.
Initially, the film is somewhat vague regarding exactly what happened, but the reveal of the premise itself was fine. The premise is, in fact, quite good, but there isn't much else beyond that. It ends up turning into a rather predictable indie drama about grief and the act of letting go; once the central conflict is revealed, the rest of the story becomes easy to anticipate.
There were also moments that made no sense—like when someone who is grieving says, "I'm going to let Jesus take the wheel," and then, sure enough, they actually let them drive. As if that was ever going to end well.
Although the film runs shorter than the standard 90-minute runtime, it somehow felt long to me, as I was bored for most of it.
The subsequent Q&A session with Katie Aselton and Mark Duplass was, honestly, more entertaining than the movie itself. They spoke about shooting the film in just 13 days and how the low budget limited their creative possibilities. The conversation was pleasant, which almost made me feel bad for having detested the movie as much as I did.
I feel a bit conflicted, because it is a very modest film, and they mentioned that we would be its promoters through word of mouth; but, all in all, I didn't like it.
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