“Glad households are all alike”, that is the immortal first sentence of Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”. “Each sad household is sad in its personal approach.” Whereas jaded viewers may assume that each one indie dramas about dysfunctional households within the mildew of “Little Miss Sunshine” or “The Squid and the Whale” are related, Author-director Halula Roth’s “Glad Household” exhibits that the style has moved in a extra open-minded course. Whether or not that is in the end a greater course stays to be seen.
The main focus of this specific household is Graham (Josh Radnor), an aspiring screenwriter and actor whose older brother Will (Rob Huebel) stars in a massively in style (and seemingly Very Dangerous) starring in a TV collection. Will flew from Los Angeles to Chicago and shocked Graham with a shock go to to the childhood residence they bought collectively. touching her inappropriately.
If that appears like so much, it is simply the tip of the iceberg: Graham not too long ago reconnected with a school buddy named Dana (Chandra Russell), who’s about to turn out to be his new tenant, Will. My teenage daughter (Ivy O’Brien) has simply come out as homosexual. The Landrys have been certainly sad in their very own approach.
Radnor, a multi-talented man who has written, directed and starred in two Sundance Movie Pageant hits, in addition to starring within the feature-length blockbuster How I Met Your Mom, appears to have all of it. Taking part in the jaded and more and more world-weary Graham with ease. It is like he cannot consider that, regardless of his inconsistent habits, he is in some way turn out to be essentially the most well-adjusted member of the household. The script by Roth and co-writer Cockburn Goss works greatest when it focuses on the rekindled spark between Graham and Dana, a chef who, not like her soon-to-be landlord, will not be used to being on the cliff Edge self-destructive. “You Like It” generally seems like a number of films launched on the identical time, with its overlapping subplots vying for dominance like attention-hungry siblings and the rom-com bits that find yourself being the golden boy.
However there’s so much else happening. “I can not consider that is my household,” mentioned Sue, an out-of-control matriarch throughout one of many brothers’ lowest moments. That is in all probability essentially the most resonant line within the film, and one which many people have considered sooner or later, even when we have by no means mentioned it out loud. “All You Like” is not a bombastic or overwrought monologue, however reasonably small, lived-in moments that just about make the movie greater than the sum of its deliberately disjointed components.
This can be a large burden for any household of 4. It additionally means so much to any filmmaker, particularly one who shoots 90-minute slices of life. It is no shock, then, that “Glad Household” finally ends up feeling incomplete, as if we’re watching the pilot episode of a miniseries reasonably than a standalone function. Arguably, leaving the viewers wanting extra, however much more so, telling a narrative that feels prefer it’s over by the point the tip credit roll. Ross and Goss contact on plenty of heavy themes—a lot of the subplots may advance your complete narrative in their very own proper—however they don’t have time to do way more than contact on most of them.
