ginnynnig I mean, how many films out there you can find about dysfunctional families, drug abuse, self harm, loneliness, fear? There are so many.BUT, let me say a few other things about this movie. The cast is so great and well directed that this movie stands up dramatically above many movies I've seen of the same genre. There are so many characters, so many different personalities and all have their segment in the movie.The script was more developed than most drama-comedies out there and I think it contained a lot of situations that we don't often get to see or perhaps they're usually over simplified.I think that Ellen Barkin (I love her work since DownbyLaw, aw I know her words of that movie by heart) really gave an astonishing performance. I felt a lot for her character here, her deep sadness, loneliness, frustration and strength too. I felt like even though she tried so hard to make things work some things weren't going to change, some people would always f**k things up but she persevered, kept trying. Even her mother wasn't even trying to understand her or help her and she had to find all the strength within herself, I really liked this concept and I think many people can relate to it if you watch this movie closely.Ezra was great as always. Kinda often playing the sweet f****d up kid but I guess he's good at it (loved him so much in City Island).Possible flaw: The drug part, Ezra taking the grandfather's drugs twice made me wonder a bit.. I mean after a night of almost overdose is it normal to be all lucid and functional and to like even realize your lips are blue? I would think that after you take a really heavy drug you're like a zombie for a few days, but it would've made the movie even more dramatic if he wouldn't have woken up the next day so I thought it was better this way.I loved the daughter character too. I loved it especially on the part when she found courage to go talk to her dad and asked for some alone time with him and he said not without the wife. The fact she didn't say anything back was really interesting. That was so real, so sad and so relatable and she was good at portraying that, her facial expressions were very communicative.About the wealthiness of that family: American movies most of the times show people living such high quality life in such wealthy families but it's barely how most people actually live in real life. We're all so used to see movies like that, that we got used to the idea that we're just poor and the rest of the people out there must have better houses, like in the movies. We possibly even think that's what we should aim for and it's kinda sad that cinema did this to us.Other than that, I thought this movie was very true in terms relationships. It was very human and showed some real struggle, also, it didn't have a classic happy ending and I really appreciated that.Gosh the step mom's character was so the worst.Anyways, watch it, it's a good drama.

secondtake Another Happy Day (2011)Another movie filled with inevitable clichés and a mixed bag of jokes and awkward comic encounters. It's nothing special, for sure, and because it seems to have some serious intentions it ends up being even more difficult to love. That said, it was nevertheless watchable because of the growing interplay between curious characters, and because of a couple of strong central performances.An odd but quick way to describe this movie is this: a Woody Allen farce about a contemporary apparently Jewish dysfunctional family in the rich suburbs somewhere on the Chesapeake, but without the grace and pointed brilliance of Allen's writing. It even begins with Allen-styled white on black text. And it's written and directed by the same person, Sam Levinson--who has probably gotten the chance for direct because his father Barry was so successful in Hollywood.What works is the bickering mayhem of a contemporary family. They are geographically dispersed but are reuniting for a wedding. Wayward children and ex-spouses all must encounter one another in what should have been (and sometimes is) a tense, hilarious, richly complicated scenario.The complicated part is there, at least. One of the characters is a son played by Ezra Miller who shows his torment, his dependence of substances of any and all kinds, and his sense of irony really well. The more famous actors like Ellen Burstyn give a strong presence on screen but have to work within the somewhat clumsy construction of the movie. Demi Moore makes a different kind of appearance and is successfully annoying without seeming to fake it one bit. Her husband is played by the ever daft seeming Thomas Haden Church. Throw in Kate Bosworth and a an aging (of course) George Kennedy and you can see how there are moments, or shards, of real potential here.It is rather the writing and the somewhat pushy melodrama that makes it wobbly even as the end tries to make the family gel. Maybe the movie is a sign of something better to come because it's an attempt at insight into the contemporary American scene. But the art of telling this kind of story, and of having actual insight instead of the appearances of such, need some serious work or maturity.

Aimsterdam I almost didn't watch this film because of the low rating, however, I am so glad I did. Perhaps because I relate to the total dysfunction of this family. I'm not sure I've ever seen a film that so honestly depicts the family dynamic and the characters within it. The emotional depth so brilliantly displayed by Ellen Barkin (who plays Lynn), is truly profound. Her agony is so real, so sad, and so hopeless. She takes hit after hit from her children, her parents, and her siblings as the whole extended family gathers to celebrate her estranged sons marriage. I actually believed her character was one of the strongest of all of them. Although not perfect, she continues to go on and on amidst all of the embarrassment and humiliation inflicted by her family, and survives through to the end. The performances in this film are just so perfect. You whole-heartedly believe in every one of these characters. As most REAL-LIFE situations have it, it does not end with rainbows and kittens and cupcakes. However, it does leave you with something to hang on to. As Lynn's son Elliot so brazenly put it: "Death is a more unifying force within family than love". And death, better than nothing at all for this family.

edwagreen An absolutely emotionally drenching film highlighting dysfunction at its worst.By the way, George Kennedy is ailing through most of the film and is practically at death's door. Yet, he is able to go to his grandson's wedding? Come on.Ellen Barkin is the emotionally draining woman whose second husband makes the expression opposites attract most appropriate. Ezra Miller steals the show as the emotionally draining Elliot, her son from her second marriage. Intelligent but beset by problems leading to drug use and smoking, he spends much of the film in verbal outbursts with his mother. Both make excellent use of the four-letter word constantly and it's downright disgusting.Ellen Burstyn is in top form as the matriarch of this brood. She whines and bemoans the fact of what is going on.Thomas Haden Church plays Barkin's first husband who brought up their son Dylan, who is now getting married. His second wife is a memorable Demi Moore who is volatile and has a scene stealing scene with Barkin in the lady's room.This is a film of intense frustration, but yet predictable. Of course, family tragedy at the very end, may very well bring on stability.