A Gem, Small and Perfect

I used to see a lot of movies alone, substantially more than half, and liked it that way. Lately, I’m not seeing much of anything alone, and like it this way, too.

The key is to follow the screening of a film with thoughtful conversation that provides insights I could not or might not have discovered on my own. This type of exchange enhances the experience in a way that reading about a film alone cannot because of the sharing involved.

With all of the big pictures rushing into cinemas, you may have missed Paul Dano’s auspicious directorial debut on the big screen.

Be sure not to miss seeing it at all.

Set in 1960, this is a little story that captures a particular time and place but with outsized cultural implications, though it is really the quiet moments filtered through the painful and growing awareness of a teenage boy, played by flawlessly by Ed Oxenbould, that are palpable and searing.

I don’t really need to tell you more when Leo Tolstoy has said it so well for the ages, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Now, I’m not sure that all happy families are alike–what does it even mean to be a happy family?–but the Brinson family is surely unhappy in its own way.

The simple telling of this complicated story is so well done that this should be enough of a prompt from me to have you put it on your list. I don’t use the “B-word” very often; Wildlife is brilliant.

This is notable:  I really want to see it again.