Indie Gems: Pieces of April

-
Happy Thanksgiving-sort of
 
Pieces of April will forever be known as "that only film Katie Holmes was good in" for some. While I absolutely agree with that statement, this little film is far more than that.
 
Scatter-brained April (Holmes) and her boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke) are planning to have April's estranged family over for Thanksgiving dinner. Her mother, Joy (Patricia Clarkson) is terminally ill. They've always had a rocky relationship. Coming with her is father Jim, (Oliver Platt) goody two shoes little sister Beth, (Alison Pill) brother Timmy (John Gallagher Jr.) and grandma Dottie. (Alice Drummond) The film is split between the family's long road trip and April's beat up apartment complex where she's forced to go door to door to cook her turkey after her stove breaks.
 
It's funny to me to see Pill and Gallagher as brother and sister after seeing them as potential love interests in The Newsroom. Patricia Clarkson is the real star of this film though. You can see the conflicts on her face. She's sarcastic, rude, but you can tell deep down that she has a heart and no matter how much she pretends to hate going to see April, she still loves her little girl deep down. Even if I hate to admit it, Holmes is good here too. It's easy to see why she's the black sheep of her family, but she's got a good heart.
 
Grade: A-
 
Memorable Quote: "Are you Wayne? Wayne with the new stove?" - April (Katie Holmes)

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 15, 2013 at 10:56 AM

    I kind of love this movie. The ENTIRE cast is great, including Holmes (I actually think she's talented but misguided as of late). Such a beautiful little film. Great write up!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dan O.November 15, 2013 at 2:40 PM

    Good review Brittani. This one took me by total surprise. The emotional connection with these characters didn't fully come into play, all until that final ending-sequence where I was surprisingly tearing-up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 16, 2013 at 7:06 AM

      Yeah, that final scene was pretty beautiful. Especially when April and her mother hugged.

      Delete
  3. UnknownNovember 16, 2013 at 12:58 AM

    Very good Review. Yes I agree that Patricia Clarkson is the real star of the story,but Katie Holmes does very well in this

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 16, 2013 at 6:26 AM

    I don't know if I've even seen Katie Holmes in a film before… hmm. Sounds great, though, if I even stumble on this in the DVD section, I'll give it a watch.

    ReplyDelete
  5. s.November 17, 2013 at 4:29 AM

    I've never seen this one but I do love Clarkson so I need to check it out!

    ReplyDelete
  6. JoshNovember 20, 2013 at 6:46 PM

    Holmes was great in the film, but I agree that Clarkson totally steals it. I really need to rewatch it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen
Read more

Please join me in my Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon!

-
Image
Earlier this week I made a post where I ran through the letters of the alphabet with my favorite movie titles. There were a few people that suggested I turn it into a blogathon, and I've never done that before. So here goes nothing! Since this is my first attempt at a blogathon, it's all pretty simple, and it's hopefully a quick post that everyone can join in. Rules: 1) Going through the alphabet, list your favorite movie title beginning with each letter.  2) You don't have to necessarily  like the movie to use it's title.  3) Use the banner at the top of this post in yours. 4) Please have submissions in by Friday, May 30th*. (But I'll be honest, if you send them to me after that date, I'll still add them to my post.) You can either leave a link to your post in the comments here or tweet it to me, ( @ramblingfilm )  Thanks everyone! :)  *I had to move the date back a week due to Photobucket threatening me with bandwidth issues. But
Read more