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August 22, 2008
Momma's Man opens today
Allow me to add to the litany of insistences sounding out today that, should you be in Manhattan this weekend, you go see Azazel Jacob's Momma's Man. Partially because good opening weekend numbers are necessary to make a good film stick in this marketplace, but mostly because it is a good film - a very good film, a great one, and one which seems to have the uncanny ability to make grown men weep. Amy Taubin and Manohla Dargis have raved about the film, but the most fervent responses seem to be from those gentlemen for whom the subject matter cuts a little bit too close to home. I don't think I'll read a more passionate recommendation than the text message I got from Michael Tully at Sundance, immediately after he saw the film. It was practically tear-stained. I've still got it on my old phone, but unfortunately that phone is out of juice and so I can't quote from it.
I caught the film myself the next afternoon, and I didn't cry. I don't know why. I remember leaving the theater and feeling about as frigid on the inside as the evening air around me. I loved the movie, but it wasn't the same emotional emetic for me that it was for so many of my friends. It made me close up, and I think my subconscious blocked all the parts that hit them so hard. And so what I took away from it more than anything was the performance of Flo Jacobs: that fragile, resolute expression on her face, that wavering tenderness in her voice; the meta throughline that this was the director's own mother, giving a performance that was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. And, too, I'll never forget that image of her, sitting beside her husband as he showed her his latest work, and the idea contained therein of an artist narrowing down his or her audience to the one person who matters most, the person whose opinion is worth more than the validation of all the critics in the world.
As I've been writing this, I've been marveling that what is ultimately a comedy can eke out these sorts of reactions. The film opens today at the Angelika, and Aza will be at the evening screenings to answer questions. Here is the trailer, which put in mind those wonderful wind-up toys I'd forgotten about.
...and here is Michael Tully's openhearted follow-up to that text message he sent out, almost exactly eight months after the fact.
Posted by David Lowery at August 22, 2008 11:43 AM