By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Travis Fine
Starring: Alan Cumming | Don Franklin | Frances Fisher | Garret Dillahunt | Gregg Lambert | Issac Leyva
Country: united_states
Year: 2012
Running time: 97
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2066176/
Bruce says: “ANY DAY NOW won the Audience Award for best feature at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. Already I have heard snide comments about its deservedness. How does it happen that every film dealing with disabilities is tagged as esoteric fare or, worse, TV movie material? The New York Times, in its coverage of Tribeca awards, neglected to mention that the child in the film has Down Syndrome although it was mentioned that the couple who was attempting to adopt him was gay.
“Paul (Garret Dillahunt) is a divorced man who is working his way up in the DA’s office. One night he walks into a gay bar with a drag show. Rudy (Allan Cumming) is on stage, the lead lip-syncher in a drag trio. Eyes lock and before you can count to ten, Rudy is giving Paul head in his car. Suddenly the police knock on the window. Paul handles the situation with finesse and Rudy is impressed.
“Rudy is behind on his rent, but that is no tragedy compared to what is going on in the apartment next door where a drug addicted mother lives with her son Marco who has Down Syndrome. After she is caught dealing, Marco’s mother is hauled off by narcotics agents and Marco is left behind. Rudy finds him and takes him in. Rudy has no idea how to deal with a child so he goes with his instincts and asks Marco what he would like to do. ‘Tell me a story. I like happy endings,’ says Marco. As romance blossoms, Rudy and Paul become de facto parents for Marco. Nothing is easy. Their attempts to give Marco a deserving home are met with hostile actions from the justice system and the institutions that handle foster care. In spite of testimony such as ‘they are more compassionate and loving parents as I have ever seen,’ the judge (Frances Fisher) who hears the case is not objective. Rudy has a sharp, Mae West tongue and his acerbic remarks do not help win anyone over. Paul is outed during the legal battles and he loses his job. The duo hires a lawyer (Don Franklin) who gives them renewed hope.
“Alan Cumming has an electric on-screen presence, particularly when Rudy gives up lip-synching and launches a cabaret career. His deliveries of ‘Come to Me’ and ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’ were bittersweet and lovely. Issac Leyva, playing considerable years younger than his actual age, is terrific as the abandoned child. The amazing thing about ANY DAY NOW is that, although it is set in 1979, much of what happens to Marco, Rudy and Paul is not that different from what might happen today in many parts of our country. 4.5 cats
” (ANY DAY NOW screened as part of the 2012 Tribeca International film Festival.)”
Chris says: “In 1979 Los Angeles, divorced straight-laced attorney Paul (Garret Dillahunt) walks into a gay nightclub and is transfixed by Rudy (Alan Cumming), a drag queen performing on stage. Although Paul hasn’t slept with another man before, he and Rudy have an instant, if at first unlikely connection. Meanwhile, in his run-down apartment building, Rudy discovers that his loud, obnoxious neighbor has a mentally challenged son, Marco (Isaac Leyva) whom she neglects and abuses. When she is arrested for narcotics possession and Marco gets placed in a group home, the boy immediately escapes and walks back to the apartment building. Having bonded with Marco, Rudy takes him in.
“With the mother’s permission, Rudy receives temporary custody of the boy. Paul then invites them to move into his house and the three become a loving family with Rudy and Paul giving Marco a safe, healthy environment he’s never before known. However, since Paul and Rudy are a gay couple, before long they’re under surveillance and attack by a legal system and social structure where everyone from Paul’s boss to a family court judge deem the two men unfit guardians for Marco–not for how they raise the boy but simply for who they are. What the system subjects Paul and Rudy to is nothing less than humiliating and it accomplishes nothing constructive for any of its participants.
“Given its earnest approach and sensitive subject matter, ANY DAY NOW could have easily veered off into any number of unsavory directions such as preachy issue film, sappy melodrama or sentimental tearjerker. Fortunately, director/writer Travis Fine establishes a sincere and restrained tone reminiscent of Tom McCarthy’s THE VISITOR and sustains it. In turn, the more emotional passages that develop feel completely honest and fully earned. If the message relayed isn’t exactly subtle, it’s still genuinely powerful. The film also carefully and lovingly re-creates its era, getting all the specific details correct (like Paul’s powder-blue three piece suit or super-8 movies documenting the happy home Paul and Rudy provide for Marco) without lapsing into kitsch.
“Frances Fisher excels in a difficult supporting role as a biased judge and it’s fun to see Dillahunt play somewhat against type while always seeming comfortable and convincing doing so. Having said that, this is undeniably Cumming’s film and perhaps his career-best onscreen performance. In his hands, Rudy is no flamboyant caricature. Arguably, one gets a better sense of Rudy as a man than as a drag queen. With his long hair, hideously ‘70s sleeveless t-shirts and unapologetically bawdy Queens accent, he stands out in a crowd but Cummings always suffuses him with dignity and grace. His moving rendition of Bob Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released’ (which gives the film its title) beautifully underscores the film’s bittersweet resilience–made even more poignant by the fact that in many parts of this country, the Pauls and Rudys of today face exactly the same prejudices. 5 cats
“(This film screened at the 2012 Provincetown International Film Festival)”