Streaming possibility: Steph Green's "get well soon" family dramedy, RUN AND JUMP

My friend and occasional co-writer here, Lee Liberman, refers to certain films as "Hallmark cards" -- as in, "That was a little too Hallmark for me." I get what she means. Even in some of the films I've enjoyed -- often genre movies such as the GLBT-themed What Happens Next? and The Perfect Wedding -- I must admit that these do have their Hallmark aspect. This past week we streamed a movie I'd call the thinking person's Hallmark: RUN & JUMP, the first full-length film from Steph Green.

Ms Green -- shown at right, who earlier gave us the very charming and on-point short New Boy -- both directed and co-wrote (with Ailbhe Keogan) the movie, which tells of a period in which the father of the family (Edward MacLiam, below, center right) is recovering from a stroke he had at a very early age and is now coming home to stay with his wife (Maxine Peake, below, left, of the Brit mini-series Silk), son (Brendan Morris, below, center, left), daughter (Ciara Gallagher), at far right, being held) and a research doctor (Will Forte, below, right, doing the holding) whose grant money allows him to stay with the family (and provide them some much-needed financial aid) even as he daily videos dad's progress -- or lack of it.

Clearly, this is a fraught situation full of possibilities for drama, comedy, extra-curricular romance and much else. Ms Green generally makes the most of this without going overboard into farce or melodrama. What we think may happen often does -- but in a manner a bit different from what we initially imagine.

This is both the strength and weakness of the movie, for if the film does not go in for the heavy hand, it still makes everything a little too easy, as all falls too neatly, and finally, expectedly, into place. "All" would include the physical and mental attraction between wife and doctor, hubby's progress stroke-wise, and even the son's coming to terms with his being gay (and everyone else coming to terms with this, too).

Run & Jump is indeed a feel-good film and well-acted by all, especially Mr. Liam's dad (whose post-stroke feelings are now right on the surface) and Ms Peake's mum, a dervish of energy and appeal. Mr. Forte does a more than credible job as the doctor in the middle of it all, and the filmmaker manages to keep everything rolling for the slightly-longer-than-necessary 106 minutes.

Though not as easy a landing for all these characters as it might have been (imagine what would happen had Hollywood gotten hold of this story), it's still a bit easier than it is believable. It's Hallmark, all right, but for those who need a little edge to their "get well soon" and "ain't families grand" sentiment.

Run & Jump can be streamed now via Netlfix and elsewhere and is also available on DVD.

Michael Maren's A SHORT HISTORY OF DECAY: an American indie film that spins cliché into gold

A quietly elegant little movie (because it refuses to push anything) about family and the finale of the older generation, A SHORT HISTORY OF DECAY, written and directed by first-timer Michael Maren, is a beautifully rendered piece of Americana as it exists today, mid economic (and most every other kind of) decline. And yet this movie is not actually depressing. Oddly enough, it is simply too plain and too real for that. It accepts what is and must be (even if its characters have some difficulty doing so) and therefore liberates us, the audience, to look upon reality and understand it.

Mr. Maren, shown at left, is no spring chicken; his career and interests prior to filmmaking seem to have groomed him to look at life and people and events with a dry, incisive eye. Along the way in this movie, and without making any big thing of it, he quietly nails odd moments of family behavior, sibling (and spousal) rivalry, right through to that instant in which our near-hero sees an attractive woman on the beach and a moment later we realize that it's his aging mother -- mistook or maybe remembered from a much earlier time. You don't get this kind of stuff in most American independent movies, and certainly not served up as well and in such unshowy fashion.

We begin in the ever more gentrified Brooklyn, in which our slacker leading man, Nathan (the first-rate Bryan Greenberg, above), less a failed writer than one who has simply never finished anything, begins a morning dispute with his significant other, Erika (Emmanuelle Chriqui, below), a high-powered woman with a first novel about be published. How this scene ends is both funny and surprising.

An unexpected phone call regarding his parents sends Nathan down to Florida, to mom (Linda Lavin, below, right), dad (Harris Yulin, below, left) and -- eventually -- older brother (Benjamin King), where, of course, family history, along with past and present problems bubble up and spill over. Aging, Alzheimer's, stroke, money problems, love and lust jockey for position, but Maren never lets any one thing take the lead for long. He juggles character and events with consummate skill, balancing the comedy of life with its inevitable tragedy -- and shows us a lot of the interesting moments in between.

You might call the film a kind of comedy, but it's so quiet and unforced that you'll smile more readily than laugh out loud. The drama is certainly there, yet it's so unforced that it never for a moment becomes melodrama. Characters are written and acted very well by the entire ensemble cast -- which includes a lovely, radiant and savvy Kathleen Rose Perkins (below) as mom's manicurist; a hot, svelte Rebecca Dayan as the young lady Nathan meets at a local bar/restaurant; and Barbara Weetman as the smart, if slightly pushy bartender.

What is especially remarkable here is how clever are the performers, together with their writer/director, in never going too far. They behave, rather than "act." Less is more has rarely proven so enjoyable or so on-the-mark.

A Short History of Decay -- from Paladin and running a just-about perfect-for-its-content 93 minutes -- arrives in theaters this Friday, May 16. In New York City look for it at the Village East Cinema, and elsewhere soon, I hope.