Friday film roundup: Of the Family, By a Family, and for the Family
Today’s film roundup from Past the Popcorn:
The Shue show-business family–actor Andrew Shue, his acting sister Elizabeth, and her writer-director husband Davis Guggenheim–have collaborated on the based-on-personal-events film Gracie: a true for-the family PG-13 tale of loss, perseverance, and soccer. Kathy Bledsoe says the film “escapes the tendency to bare too much soul and become maudlin while doing an excellent job of character exploration and development.” If you feel Hollywood has been ignoring family issues lately in favor of spectacle, Gracie might be the antidote you’re looking for.
The other new options this week are all very adult in their orientation. Kevin Costner sheds what nice-guy reputation he’s got left in favor of a Hannibal Lecter-like murderer named the Thumbprint Killer, Judd Apatow follows up The 40-Year-Old Virgin with the unplanned-parenthood comedy Knocked Up, and the arthouse circuit brings us Paris, je t’aime. Jeff Walls, Kathy Bledsoe, and Greg Wright give all three fairly decent reviews — with the caveat that you’d best not fall outside the target audience demographic (and none of the three are aimed the faith market or families).
