{"id":7307,"date":"2019-04-26T10:05:40","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T14:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7307"},"modified":"2019-04-26T10:05:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T14:05:41","slug":"review-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7307","title":{"rendered":"Review: FAMILY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Laura Steinel\u2019s directorial debut has its moments, but there just aren\u2019t enough of them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Existing in a parallel universe where violations of the employment law are exaggerated without consequence, Kate Stone (Taylor Schilling) is somehow a successful executive. She is a mid-level manager type in an undefined business with a vague purpose. On a daily basis, Kate insults and abuses those around her, as she ascends the corporate ladder. But this drive to steamroll over colleagues has taken its toll. Kate\u2019s not even invited to office birthday celebrations.

One day, she gets a call from her brother (\u201cGreen Room\u2019s\u201d Eric Edelstein), begging her to look after his daughter while he and his wife (played by Allison Tolman) are away. Kate\u2019s brother\u2019s mother-in-law is being moved to hospice, he explains. And Kate doesn\u2019t understand that that is a bad thing. Her level of insensitivity is epic.

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Director Steinel wastes her supporting talent, including Kate McKinnon.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, Kate reluctantly takes the job, which involves dealing with a socially awkward 14-year-old girl named Maddie (Bryn Vale). Unknown to her parents, Maddie is more interested in karate than ballet. And when Kate picks her up from what should have been a ballet class, she finds Maddie practicing kicks under the instruction of Master Pete (Brian Tyree Henry). Pete\u2019s a good soul, who relates to Maddie and is clearly a potential love interest for Kate.

The bland, ironically titled \u201cFamily\u201d has a solid setup, but quickly loses its focus. The last third of the film is devoted to a romp through an Insane Clown Posse concert where the fans, who call themselves juggalos, are far more interesting and entertaining than Kate\u2019s journey. Along the way, \u201cFamily\u201d squanders talent, including Kate McKinnon as a nosey neighbor and Matt Walsh as a co-worker.

Steinel\u2019s fast-moving script wants to combine the attitude of \u201cBad Santa\u201d with a heart-warming, everything is going to be okay, ending. The final bit of sentimentality does not ring true and undercuts the edge that launched the movie. Steinel can\u2019t settle on a tone, giving viewers a stale resolution that fails to strike a humorous or emotional chord.

\u201cOrange is the New Black\u2019s\u201d Taylor Schilling is certainly up to the role, which is something akin to Charlize Theron\u2019s character is Jason Reitman\u2019s far better \u201cYoung Adult.\u201d But as Kate, Schilling\u2019s required to make huge personality shifts on-a-dime that aren\u2019t credible. It\u2019s as if writer\/director Steinel doesn\u2019t want to make a movie about a bad person who remains bad, but manages to do something right despite her personality foibles. Steinel should take a look at the work of director Alex Ross Perry (see \u201cHer Smell\u201d currently in theaters). There\u2019s a market for telling stories about bad people, and Kate is as bad as they come.

To be fair, as a comedy, there are laughs here and there, and the entire juggalo subplot screamed out to be the focus of the entire film. But \u201cFamily\u201d does not follow up on its potentially subversive, offbeat first third and loses its way.

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Blandly titled film has edgy setup, but weak resolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1455,1457,1456,1452,1459,1458,1451,1453,1454],"class_list":["post-7307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-allison-tolman","tag-bryn-vale","tag-eric-edelstein","tag-family","tag-insane-clown-posse","tag-juggalo","tag-kate-mckinnon","tag-laura-steinel","tag-taylor-schilling","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7311,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307\/revisions\/7311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}