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Posts Tagged ‘Taylor Schilling’

“FAMILY”: Where they have to let you in

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 25, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Bryn Vale, Taylor Schilling

“FAMILY” My rating: C 

85 minutes | MPAA rating: R

A misanthropic adult gets saddled with a troubled kid. Against all odds they teach each other to love.

That stock plot has been resurrected to no particular payoff with Laura Steinel’s “Family,” a film neither funny enough or empathetic enough to leave a lasting impression.

Kate (“Orange is the New Black’s” Taylor Schilling) is, to put it bluntly, a miserable excuse for a human being. She’s blunt to the point of cruelty, indifferent to others’ feelings, and fiercely competitive.  She lives for her job at a hedge fund and hasn’t had a true relationship with another person for years.

And then the kid-hating workaholic finds herself babysitting her niece Maddie (Bryn Vale), a moody, unhappy kid trying to cope with her outsider status.  Maddie’s parents leave Kate with instructions to not only care for their daughter for a couple of days, but to buy her a prom dress and see that she goes to the big dance.

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“THE OVERNIGHT”: Old school sex

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, Jason Schwarzman

Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, Jason Schwarzman

“THE OVERNIGHT” My rating: B- 

80 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Nearly 50 years ago, in “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” two seemingly hip couples dabbled  in wife swapping, only to find that despite the love beads and bell bottoms they remained hopelessly old school in sexual matters.

Things haven’t changed all that much.

In “The Overnight” married transplants to Los Angeles meet an intriguing couple and spend a night drinking, hot tubbing and flirting with disaster.

Writer/director Patrick Brice delivers an uncomfortable comedy that suggests that old-time morality still has us in its clutches and isn’t letting go any time soon.

Alex and Emily (Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling), only recently arrived from Seattle, are wondering if they will ever make new friends in the City of Angels.  They get their answer in a park playground where their young son hits it off with another little boy.

This kid’s dad is Kurt (Jason Schwartzman), a funny, suave and deeply eccentric fellow who invites the newcomers over to the house. The kids can play, the grownups can get to know one another.

Think of it as a long night’s journey into monogamy.  But not without some major temptations and digressions.

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“STAY”: December-May love

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on March 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Aiden Quinn, Taylor Schilling

Aiden Quinn, Taylor Schilling

“STAY” My rating: C+ (OpeningMarch 21 at the Glenwood South)

99 minutes | No MPAA rating

“Stay” is a well-acted, minor-key Irish love story that is probably too minor-key for its own good.

Dermot (Aidan Quinn) is a sixtysomething retired history professor now living in a small burg on the coast near Galway, Ireland. As “Stay” begins, he’s happily cohabiting with Abby (Taylor Schilling, star of Showtime’s prison dramedy  “Orange Is the New Black”), a woman half his age.

All seems blissful until Abby realizes she’s preggers. Dermot has never hidden his antipathy toward fatherhood and Abby’s condition aggravates whatever cracks are in their relationship.

She heads back home to Montreal and her blue-collar father (Michael Ironside) to decide whether to have an abortion or go through with the pregnancy.

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