The only new wide release opening this weekend is The Dukes of Hazzard and I have a feeling that reading review excerpts is probably a lot more entertaining than actually watching the movie.
But it's an unusually strong weekend for limited releases if you're lucky enough to live in one of the cities they're opening in: the Jim Jarmusch-directed Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray, and Wong Kar-Wai's 2046, featuring Zhang Ziyi and an all-star Asian cast, both hit theaters today. (This is still summer, isn't it?) I haven't seen either film yet but I have seen another limited release, one which unfortunately may not get as much attention.
Junebug is one of those small character-driven indies that doesn't have any major stars, doesn't have a premise that can be summed up in a single sentence and needs all the help it can possibly get in order to reach an audience.
Hopefully Junebug will find that help because it's the best movie I've seen so far this year.
At the risk of diminishing the qualities that make this such a unique film I'll try to boil down the premise as simply as I can: a Chicago art gallery owner travels with her new husband to North Carolina to meet with a local artist, and while she's there she meets her husband's family for the first time.
This kind of idea can go in all sorts of directions but Junebug isn't a sentimental movie about Blue Staters experiencing a grand awakening in a Red State and it's definitely not a movie that's content to portray the South as a parade of caricatures and cliches (maybe it's sort of perfect that the movie opens the same week as Dukes of Hazzard).
Saying the movie is about culture clash of the North and South is like saying You Can Count On Me is just a movie about a brother and a sister. The beauty of the movie isn't in the concept, it's in the details.
Character-driven movies work best when the characters actually come across as believable people, and that's exactly what happens in Junebug. Inhabiting credible, well-rounded characters provides the actors a chance to shine and they do, starting with Embeth Davidtz (whose strange career includes performances in Schindler's List, Army of Darkness and Bridget Jones's Diary) in the lead role. I don't think Davidtz has ever been better on screen.
But the movie truly belongs to Amy Adams, her performance is guaranteed to be among the year's very best. Adams is blessed with one of those scene-stealing roles that endears her to the audience while allowing the actress to show her skills at both comedy and tragedy. Her character, Ashley, has married into the film's central family just like Davidtz's character has. Even though their similarities end there the women forge a unique bond and the special, but largely unrecognized, role Ashley plays in the family becomes apparent.
You don't even need to have an awareness of her filmography to suspect that Adams recognized what a gift this role was, and was determined to make the most of it. She already won an acting honor at this year's Sundance film festival (a festival which doesn't routinely hand out such prizes) and there should be more coming her way.
In praising Adams I don't mean to ignore the rest of the film's excellent cast, most notably Benjamin McKenzie, Alessandro Nivola, Celia Weston and Scott Wilson. Together the six main actors drive the movie, in ways big and small, and all of their work is vital to the film's success.
And of course it needs to be mentioned that the film's director, Phil Morrison, is making his feature directing debut with this movie. He's directed music videos and did some work on the TV sketch comedy Upright Citizens Brigade but I don't think those credits actually reflect his work here, which is deliberate and carefully observed. The film was written by Angus MacLachlan, a playwrite and longtime friend of Morrison's. As usual in the indie world they spent several years developing the project before they were finally able to get it made.
It may be a struggle for movies like Junebug to get made, and sometimes to find an audience, but obviously when the finished product is this good the struggle was well worth it. Now, go do your part and see this movie.
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