Pieces of April wears its indie filmmaking origins like a badge of honour and I can’t blame it. Quirky, funny, often sweet without becoming cloying and just weird enough to stand out, I’m surprised it isn’t mentioned more often around American Thanksgiving. There’s no way your family is as playfully dysfunctional as the one in this film by writer/director Peter Hedges but some of it is so out there it actually comes back around and becomes universal.
For the first time, April Burns (Katie Holmes) is hosting Thanksgiving with the help of her new boyfriend, Bobby (Derek Luke). This celebration is particularly important, as her mother is dying from breast cancer. As we speak, her parents, grandmother, and brother are on their way to her rinky-dink Manhattan apartment. Unfortunately, the oven has suddenly stopped working.
At first, we follow April as she scrambles to host the perfect Thanksgiving dinner. It will be a meal to remember and she wants to be sure it’s for all the right reasons. The turkey must be cooked to perfection. Not only is it the centerpiece of any Thanksgiving meal, it’s become a symbol of her adulthood. If she can’t get it right, no one will allow her to forget it. Her parents already basically think of her as a failure. Considering how crappy her apartment building looks, you can see why. Only minutes in, you understand completely the importance of this bird. If only the other tenants could too, maybe they’d be more sympathetic. Some of them are. Most of the eclectic people she attempts to quickly befriend are weirdos you instantly know will be zero help. In fact, she might've been better off remaining unaware of their existence. Some of them are a tad cartoonish, even for this movie, but overall, they generate some good laughs.
The second storyline follows Jim (Oliver Platt), Joy (Patricia Clarkson), Grandma Beth (Alison Pill) and Timmy (John Gallagher Jr.). They may act like April is the black sheep of the family, the one they failed and allowed to go astray but they’re all so alike you’d never believe she belonged to anyone else. They’re all full of the kind of surprises that feel real because they’re so absurd no one could just come up with them without reference. They make you laugh as much as the oddballs April has to ask for help but there’s also an underlying sadness in their drive. You can see how hard April is trying to get things right and meanwhile, they have no faith in her whatsoever. Despite this or maybe because of this, you grow attached to them. You want them to have this one perfect day. Realizing that they think it’s impossible is unexpectedly upsetting. It may be a very April thing to be in a spot where she needs to cook a turkey but has no oven (and that’s only the beginning of her troubles, Bobby’s got his own crazy tale) but they could have a little faith in her. Then you have this crazy thought "If it doesn't work out, maybe it won't be so disastrous. Maybe a catastrophe could be the thing that brought them together like nothing did before!"
Pieces of April shows what a strong (though not perfect) script can do when combined with enthusiasm from the director and dedicated performances. The actors and actresses give it their all and it adds up to more than the sum of the film’s parts. It’s got a couple of racy moments and some ideas you won't want the kids to hear but I could really see this one becoming a yearly tradition for the family, the movie you all watch together while waiting for that one person that’s always late to arrive. (Full-screen version on VHS, June 10, 2021)
Cast: Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, Ron Livingston, Rosemarie DeWitt, CJ Adams, Patrick Brouder, Chan Creswell, William J. Harrison, Odeya Rush, Shohreh Aghdashloo, David Morse, M. Emmet Walsh, Lois Smith, Dianne Wiest, James Rebhorn
Release year: 2012
Genres: fantasy, family, drama, comedy
Blurb: A childless couple bury a box in their backyard which contains all of their wishes for a baby. Soon, a child is born...though Timothy Green is not all that he appears.
It was 20 years ago: The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt made his Nonesuch Records debut with the release of the soundtrack to Pieces of April, the Peter Hedges film starring Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, and Oliver Platt. Merritt offers four previously unreleased Magnetic Fields tracks and the specially written “One April Day” on the soundtrack to the acclaimed film, which, like Merritt’s songs, deftly balances humor and pathos. The Independent (UK) praised his “exquisite, finely-rendered adult pop.” You can hear it here.
Tim e Kate Welch conducono un’esistenza felice: lui è uno stimato professore di storia nell’esclusiva scuola privata di Brooklyn Heights, lei si occupa dei figli e della casa, tentando di essere quella mamma perfetta che non ha mai avuto. Fino al giorno in cui Kate non decide di accettare un’inattesa e super pagata offerta di lavoro e Tim prende un anno sabbatico per seguire i figli e completare…
Dexter Sol Ansell, playing Egg (the future King Aegon V Targaryen), is best known for playing the (very) young Coriolanus Snow in the opening scene for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
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I think Dexter is a perfect choice for Egg! He looks very HBO-Targaryen, and IMO has a strong resemblance to Leo Ashton (young Aemond in HOTD S1), as well as Emma D'Arcy (Rhaenyra). Of course he'll be shaving his head (poor kid), and with those light eyebrows, I'm sure he will be very very egg, lol.
Our new Dunk, Peter Claffey, from Portumma, Ireland, used to be a rugby player (he's 1.96m, 6'5"), but left the sport in 2018 and got into acting. Here's a clip from his agent's site, and for more videos see here.
I personally think this clip is highly convincing of Peter's potential in this role. "We could use a man-mountain like you", indeed.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017, USA/UK)
Director & Writer: Martin McDonagh
Mini-review:
I liked this much more than The Banshees of Inisherin, but it still left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the acting is simply phenomenal and the script has some biting social commentary. The story also packs a few twists that took me by surprise, which I always appreciate. However, some of its dark humor didn't really work. I feel like it was trying to criticize or parody certain types of people, but sometimes it ended up doing the exact same things it seems to criticize. In this regard, the comedic parts of the movie were somewhat confusing. At this point, I'm starting to think that Martin McDonagh's movies are just not my thing. They're obviosly well-made and he can direct the hell out of his actors, but his sense of humor and his choice of dramatic beats are too hit or miss for me.
Peter Claffey (Bad Sisters) and Dexter Sol Ansell (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) have landed the two lead roles in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, the next Thrones spinoff series to follow House of the Dragon, Entertainment Weekly can exclusively report.
The prequel is based on author George R.R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas and is set about a century before the events of Game of Thrones. Claffey will star as "Dunk," a.k.a. Ser Duncan the Tall, a young, naïve, and courageous knight; and Ansell will star as "Egg," the nickname for Duncan's diminutive squire.
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Claffey, a former Connacht Rugby player in Ireland, made his stage debut at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in A Whistle in the Dark by Tom Murphy. He was seen in 2022's Bad Sisters and Wreck, and he's set to star opposite Cillian Murphy in Small Things Like These and to appear in season 3 of Vikings: Valhalla.
Ansell, now 9 years old, started his acting career at the age of 4 on ITV's 2019 show Emmerdale. His credits include Sky's thriller series The Midwich Cuckoos and Netflix's comedy film Christmas on Mistletoe Farm, but he more recently portrayed a younger Coriolanus Snow in last year's The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Ansell also has roles lined up in The Moor, Channel 4's Hullraisers, and Robin and The Hood.
I think that Art Parkinson was just 9 when he was chosen to portray Rickon Stark. Though Rickon was not really that major a character throughout GoT.
As one of the title characters, Dexter Sol Ansell will probably be in every episode. So I'm wondering if this will be an ASoIaF equivalent of a kids program.