JUDY BERLIN (The Shooting Gallery) Starring: Aaron Hornick, Edie Falco, Barbara Barrie, Bob Dishy, Madeline Kahn, Bette Henritze, Novella Nelson. Screenplay: Eric Mendelsohn. Producer: Rocco Caruso. Director: Eric Mendelsohn. MPAA Rating: R (adult themes, profanity) Running Time: 91 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Quite a bit has happened in the year since JUDY BERLIN premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, and won director Eric Mendelsohn the Dramatic Competition Directing Award. One co-star, Edie Falco, has become a household name as long-suffering mob wife Carmela Soprano on HBO's "The Sopranos." Another co-star, Madeline Kahn, lost her battle with ovarian cancer. Perhaps most significantly, AMERICAN BEAUTY became a critical and popular success with its cynical take on the facade of suburban bliss. It doesn't take long for a film's entire context to change. Could JUDY BERLIN avoid feeling instantly, jarringly out-of-step?
In the case of JUDY BERLIN, such concerns probably seem silly, since its style is already so surreal and timeless. His black-and-white tale takes place during one eventful fall day in the Long Island town of Babylon, during a solar eclipse. 30-year-old aspiring filmmaker David Gold (Aaron Hornick) is back in town staying with his parents Art (Bob Dishy), the grade school principal, and Alice (Madeline Kahn), a flighty housewife. Art is the object of desire of teacher Sue Berlin (Barbara Barrie), and the affections may even be requited. David, meanwhile, runs into his old high school classmate and Sue's daughter Judy (Edie Falco), who is ready to leave that very night for Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of an acting career.
If JUDY BERLIN looks and plays like a suburban spin on a Woody Allen ensemble comedy, it shouldn't be surprising; Mendelsohn spent years as an assistant costume designer for Allen films. Essentially it's a character study, exploring the submerged longings of its suburban denizens that come to the surface only when the eclipse causes time to stand still. Alice wanders the streets, playing at exploring an alien world; a retired teacher (Bette Henritze) in the early stages of Alzheimer's also wanders in a search for something familiar. The veteran cast members deliver some superb performances, particularly Kahn in a very funny yet very sad piece of work, and Barrie as the not-well-liked teacher with an unknown inner life. JUDY BERLIN manages to hit some effective comic notes while always staying true to the small, very personal desires of even its peripheral characters.
Mendelsohn's main characters, however, fare less well. The title of the film tells us to focus on the interaction between David and Judy as the thematic center, and, unfortunately, the center doesn't hold. David exists primarily as a stand-in for the filmmaker -- the frequent, nudgy references to the fact that we're watching a story that's going to be turned into a film don't help matters -- and Hornick doesn't do enough with what is there. Edie Falco, meanwhile, shows a wonderful range in a character light years removed from Carmela Soprano. It's a very entertaining performance as an endearing character, but Judy is more a symbol of possible escape than a fully-realized person. While David's mopey self-loathing may ultimately come in for affectionate mockery, that doesn't make it any easier to latch on to him as a protagonist, or to care about the fate of David and Judy's relationship.
Even when he fumbles one of his sub-plots, Mendelsohn keeps JUDY BERLIN enough on the sweet side of bittersweet that it remains appealing. He seems to find the suburbs far from a soulless place hiding dark secrets, but rather a place like any other where people suspect the best moments may already have passed them by. The look (Jeffrey Seckendorf's black-and-white cinematography) and sound (Michael Nicholas's piano and harpsichord score) may contribute much to JUDY BERLIN's sense of timelessness, but the story itself plays a significant role. The characters in the film spend much of the running in place because they're always looking behind them. How refreshing to find a film that suggests there's something to look forward to -- even in the suburbs.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 eclipse joints: 7.
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