Spoilers...little ones
Grandma is "almost great", and I don't say that lightly. It's not great. I really can say that much. It's to much of a low key effort to be great. It's too subtle, but for those who can realize that "almost great" still means "pretty damn good" I'm glad you've stumbled across this review. Grandma stars Lily Tomlin as a grandmother named El. Well not the conception of what you usually think of as a grandmother. Her character is really quite good because it play against conventions. She's not the whole "holy are thou" or "cold, and resentful" type of grandparent that I'm sure we've all encountered. She couldn't give a shit about anyone, and will support being a full and openminded person. So when her granddaughter played by Julia Garner shows up, and asks for $600 to pay for an abortion El simply says ok, and more gets mad at her for only addressing the money problem about 7 hours before the abortion is about to happen. I just realized how funny that actually is. You expect the El to be upset because the granddaughter is pregnant, and that she's getting an abortion, but she couldn't care less. She gets mad because it's 7 hours before the procedure, and the kid has only just addressed the situation. But El doesn't have the money, and this leads her to take the granddaughter on a trip around town to see some old friends, and get money. Each of these people will reveal the character of El through the way they knew her in the past, or the way she acts around them now. And that's where Grandma kind of stumbles. See the big problem is while all the characters that director Paul Weitz has written are most definitely interesting, some of them unfortunately feel redundant. Most of them are just perfect honestly. Great character actors such as Judy Greer, and Sam Elliot are given powerful, and actually very funny scenes. That said the comedy of the film does decide to be somewhat acidic, but it still manages to be hilarious. It's much to serious to ever be fully funny. But back to the people. Yes Greer, and Elliot are given things to do, but a visit to a tattoo parlor run by Orange is the New Black feels like it may be padding. Not that it's entertaining. Tomlin doesn't let it be unentertaining, it just feels unnecessary in a film that's 72 minutes long, and for that length that's not particularly a good thing. I feel that may seem too negative. That really does because Tomlin cannot be understated. Elliot, Greer, and Garner can't be understated. Any of the actors can't be understated. But the movie is slightly, and coming out of it wanted more. Haha there's the unnecessary negativity again. I give Grandma an 8.5 out of 10. NOTE: To those living in the St. Louis Grandma is playing at the HI POINTE theatre down near Forrest Park. They just redid the front auditorium, and it's great. The HI POINTE is my favorite place personally to see a film, and you should certainly check it out.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |