Quite possibly the most frightening movie I've seen since Amour, and the single most effective ad for birth control. Writer and director Mark Webber plays Mark, a single dad in Hollywood, and enlists his friends to play unflattering versions of themselves.
Mark is struggling. He's a widowed dad and an aspiring actor who is potentially THE WORST dirty talker around. Dragging around his kid, Isaac, wherever he goes and borrowing money from one friend to pay back another, he still seems pretty oblivious to reality. And while his resilience is admirable, it can be pretty painful to witness his embarrassments.
The first half of the story is pretty unremarkable. Similar to how Mark treats his kid, the movie drags us by the hand from place to place with no focus or direction and has all the excitement of running errands. Things do pick up in the second half, however, with the film's strongest scenes stacked up next to each other as it becomes genuinely engaging for perhaps the first time. Unfortunately, it runs out of track before it can stick the landing.
The real pearl here is the relationship between Mark and Isaac (Issac Love) and the performance Webber draws from his real-life son. The two have a wonderful, genuine connection that carries most of the film. I may have been pulled in further had he not been a dead ringer for the kid from Pet Sematary. However, one couldn't help pity the poor little guy for some of the situations he's put in, as Mark is so desperate for someone to share his pain, he forces his son to experience loss so that Mark doesn't have to face it alone. One imagines this is just the beginning.
Mark is struggling. He's a widowed dad and an aspiring actor who is potentially THE WORST dirty talker around. Dragging around his kid, Isaac, wherever he goes and borrowing money from one friend to pay back another, he still seems pretty oblivious to reality. And while his resilience is admirable, it can be pretty painful to witness his embarrassments.
The first half of the story is pretty unremarkable. Similar to how Mark treats his kid, the movie drags us by the hand from place to place with no focus or direction and has all the excitement of running errands. Things do pick up in the second half, however, with the film's strongest scenes stacked up next to each other as it becomes genuinely engaging for perhaps the first time. Unfortunately, it runs out of track before it can stick the landing.
The real pearl here is the relationship between Mark and Isaac (Issac Love) and the performance Webber draws from his real-life son. The two have a wonderful, genuine connection that carries most of the film. I may have been pulled in further had he not been a dead ringer for the kid from Pet Sematary. However, one couldn't help pity the poor little guy for some of the situations he's put in, as Mark is so desperate for someone to share his pain, he forces his son to experience loss so that Mark doesn't have to face it alone. One imagines this is just the beginning.