By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Marianna Palka
Starring: Alysia Reiner | Anna Camp | Christina Hendricks | David Allen Basche | Gbenga Akinnagbe
Country: united_states
Year: 2019
Running time: 90
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7317324/reference
Thom says: “I loved how this dramedy starring major television stars came across more like a play than a film with almost the entire film taking place in a large Brooklyn loft. The film forcefully makes a showing of small screen talent being ready for the big time, putting to rest the notion that existed so much in the past that it was difficult to make the leap. Here Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Alysia Reiner (Orange is the New Black, How to Get Away with Murder), Anna Camp (The Good Wife, True Blood, The Mindy Project), & Gbenga Akinnagbe (kudos to the dude for making it with that awkward name) (The Wire, Nurse Jackie, The good Wife) all beautifully meld in this very interesting script. 8-month-pregnant Karen (Hendricks) arrives with her new-money-hungry husband Don at college art rival Tina’s (Reiner) expansive New York apartment where she lives with Wayne, her husband who lives off her artistic success & fame, for a long promised reunion. Tina is effusive at Karen’s glowing body and frame-of-mind, & the quartet are getting along somewhat famously when Tina revealing tells Karen & Don that she and Wayne are also expecting. Wheedling the whole truth out of her is difficult but it’s finally learned that Wayne’s sperm was entered into a surrogate, Kiki, who is in love with a married man with 6 children already, whose wife is yet again pregnant. In fact, Wayne has to leave to go get Kiki as she has also been invited to the gathering. Don offers to drive auto-less Wayne for the pick-up. Tina & Karen get a chance to re-bond while alone with recriminations and tears forthcoming. When Wayne & Don arrive back with Kiki in tow all Hell breaks loose and it’s a minor miracle they all escape with their lives and dignity intact. Thoughts about couples, love, pregnancy, children, truth, friendship, & marriage are all amusingly portrayed with real resonance that has a nice verisimilitude. 4 cats