To stream or not to stream? Ash Christian's overlong family rom-com-dramedy PETUNIA

Can you say no to a movie with a cast this good? (That would include the likes of Christine Lahti, David Rasche, Thora Birch, Tobias Segal, and a number of other fine actors.) PETUNIA turns out to be the family name of the family members in this "family" film by Ash Christian (who earlier gave us the pretty good Fat Girls). Mr. Christian is working here with a much higher-end cast and a story full of characters who are simply too fey, cute and logorrheic to be tolerated. Still, because those actors give it their best shot, you may be willing to tune in a bit longer than you ordinarily would.

Because Mr. Christian, shown at left, both co-wrote (with Theresa Bennett) and directed the movie, we'll have to lay the honors (or whatever) at his feet. He and Ms Bennett have certainly created an oddball family of Petunias, all of whom, with the possible exception of the gay son Charlie (Mr. Segal) who has sworn off sex and become celibate (don't worry: this doesn't last long), are utter and supreme narcissists. This kind of family can be fun, if dialog and situation are clever enough, but here they just barely pass muster.

Mom (Ms Lahti, above, left) and Dad (Mr. Rasche, at right) fight and argue all the time but to little avail; daughter (Ms Birch, below) whose wedding begins the film, is marrying a man about whom she doesn't give two shits.

Meanwhile Charlie gets involved with a downstairs neighbor (Michael Urie, below, right) who seduces him from celibacy then turns out to be married (to a sad-eyed Brittany Snow, below, left) but is still up for the occasional fuck. Other relatives are problemed, as well, but fortunately we don't have time to learn much about them.

If all this bounced along with speed and style, we might go with it. (Or, conversely, if it took on enough seriousness to matter as something real, that might be nice, too.) Instead, too often it plods and then gets repetitive (especially those fighting parents) and is simply not that funny -- until we begin to question why we should waste more time with these people.

The movie's biggest saving grace is Mr. Segal, above, and below with Ms Lahti, whose character and performance bring enough energy and good will to the proceedings that we stick around. Barely.

Petunia, from Wolfe Releasing and running too long at 112 minutes, is available to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and probably elsewhere -- and is also on DVD.

Patric Chiha's DOMAIN--from last year's Film Comment Selects--opens theatrically

No less than one of our own favorite transgressive filmmakers, John Waters, has declared the movie under consider-ation today -- DOMAIN, from Vienna-born filmmaker Patric Chiha (shown below), who now works in France -- his favorite film of 2010. First seen in New York last year as part of the annual Film Comment Selects series via the FSLC, it is finally being given a theatrical opening here in New York (and perhaps elsewhere). No world-beater, the movie's still worth seeing, particularly for those buffs with a taste for the gay or outré.

Starring the still-gorgeous star of Betty Blue, the ever-exotic Béatrice Dalle (on poster above, and below), this is a quieter and much less transgressive movie that you'd imagine (given Mr. Waters' history, though perhaps not his taste in film) as it tracks the evolving and devolving relationship between an older woman (a mathematician with an alcohol problem) and her young nephew (played by an interesting newcomer Isaïe Sultan, two photos below), who is probably gay and definitely attracted to the "otherness," as well as the sophistication, of his aunt's circle of friends.

The film is particularly smart about the manner in which youth and age perceive the world and how callous the former can sometimes be about the latter, perhaps simply for purposes of its own survival.


At times, the film may remind you of a very French Auntie Mame, were Auntie losing it and her nephew Patrick old enough (and with taste enough) to choose her clothes for an evening out. As often happens in French film, there is so much going on -- philosophically, emotionally, even family-wise (the boy's mother and her sister are not close) -- that little can come to full fruition in the mere course of the time frame that the movie offers us.

Nonetheless, the writer/director shows us the seasons as beautifully and richly as he captures character, and if the film is somewhat slow-paced and typically French in its insistence on little exposition, it still offers mature audiences much to mull over, during and post-viewing.

From Strand Releasing, with a running time of 110 minutes, Domain opens in New York City this coming Friday, January 13, at the IFC Center. If TrustMovies can learn where else you can see this interesting film -- prior to DVD, VOD and other at-home or on-the-run viewing -- he'll add it to this post.

Another knockout from Todd Solondz: LIFE DURING WARTIME opens via IFC

Not a drama, exactly, nor a comedy (though it features some of the funniest stuff seen on-screen this year), nor a meditation (it is meditative, however), nor a romance (though it does center on couples and coupling), nor a ghost story (though we do see dead people), Todd Solondz's LIFE DURING WARTIME is none of this and all of it.  The one thing I can say for certain that it is not is a musical. And yet I loved the musical score and choice of songs. No one else comes close to making movies like Mr. Solondz (shown below), and thank god for that because, really, how much more of this sadness and pain could we take -- unless it were to come leavened by dark hilarity, as it is here and in every other of the five Solondz films.

The first time I saw this latest outing (at last year's New York Film Festival: My earlier post is here), I marveled at it. Seeing it again this week, I am even more impressed.  I also recognized themes from the filmmaker's earlier Happiness, but not the characters. (Trust
Movies is not good at remembering characters' names, particularly from a film seen well over a decade ago.) Turns out they're the same bunch, though the cast is entirely new -- and every bit as good as the former group.

Solondz's particular gift is for showing us ourselves as we try mightily to adapt our lives to hypocrisy and denial -- and still soldier on successfully.  This is impossible, of course.  But what glum fun we having trying. (And then have even more fun, as we watch ourselves on screen.)  The large extended family shown here is in the process of imploding, thanks in part to the women's poor choice of men.  The men are sad beings, unable not to do wrong, and us usual, it's the children who suffer most -- in this case the daughter on far too many drugs far too soon, and the son, increasingly locked into his mother's neurosis (and the hiding of his dad's socio-pathology) but stuggling to understand before he drowns in it all.

Does this sound dank and dismal?  Sure.  And not being Mr. Solondz, I can't begin to explain how hilarious many of the goings-on actually are.  These laughs are not cheap, by the way.  They come from a deep sense of caring for all the characters -- which is the filmmaker's ace in the hole and why you'll never mistake a Solondz movie for anyone else's.

That cast, as I mentioned earlier, is impeccable. Ireland's Ciarán Hinds and Scotland's Shirley Henderson (above, right, and further above, left) make marvellous Americans, and Ally Sheedy (at right, two photos up) takes a cold, nasty role and infuses it with humor and life. Charlotte Rampling (shown at bottom) has a scene as good as anything she's ever done (and how good is that?!), with Paul Reubens (above, left), Allison Janney, Michael Lerner (below, left) and Michael K. Williams also doing splendid work (truly, there's not a false moment from anyone in the entire cast). As the boy in the center of it all, Dylan Riley Snyder (below, right) is particularly memorable.

As Solondz has so far made a film only every five years, Life During Wartime may be it for awhile. Thanks are due IFC Films for picking this one up for theatrical release, starting Friday, July 23, in NYC at the IFC Center and simultaneously available On-Demand. Click here to find out how to avail yourself of the latter option.

Images above are from the film itself, except that of 

Mr. Solodnz, copyright and courtesy of Richard Phibbs.