Thank you to Indiefest for getting me into this sneak preview. "Full Grown Men" opens at the Lumiere Theater in San Francisco on Friday.
This movie boasts an impressive, eclectic supporting cast, including Alan Cumming as a psychotic former moose mascot, Deborah Harry as a professional mermaid, and Amy Sedaris as a clown/barmaid backed up by three midget bouncers. But the movie belongs to Matt McGrath as 30-something child Alby Cutrera. It opens with a jaunty animated recap of how fun his childhood was, and how great he was at tormenting his parents, teachers, and best friend Elias. So it's not surprising that even when he grew up, got married, and had his own son, he still likes to play with toys and get into trouble. And when he gets into another fight with his wife, he walks out (or as she puts it, "run away from home, little boy"). Instead of immediately making good on his promise of going to DiggityLand (a fictional amusement park), he goes back home to his sick mother and looks up Elias, who now works as a teacher for retarded children and tries to pick up the friendship where they left off. As it happens, Elias is going to DiggityLand for a special education teachers convention, and he invites Alby along. On the way, in between meeting wacky characters, Elias finally gets fed up with Alby's abuse and childishness, and kicks him out.
As I said, this movie belongs to Matt McGrath, and without his ability to show the sympathetic, even enjoyable side of a rather unlikable person, this movie wouldn't work at all. As it was, it's a fun little movie that catches the oddity of a segment of the young adult generation that hasn't grown up.
1 comment:
I saw this one last year at Cinequest and loved it. It was a nice surprise as it turned out to be a more serious movie than the "light hearted comedy" the Cinequest book made it out to be. Later I found out the director is the brother of a good friend of mine.
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