A Nicole Holofcener double feature.
We know your watching time is limited. And the amount of things available to watch … is not. Looking for a movie? Nearly any movie ever made? It's probably streaming somewhere. That's a lot of movies. |
Below, we're suggesting two of them, the latest of our weekly double-feature recommendations. We think the movies will pair well — with each other and with you. |
Your weekly double feature: Nicole Holofcener |
 | | Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt in a scene from "Please Give."Piotr Redlinski/Sony Pictures Classics |
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'Lovely & Amazing' and 'Please Give' |
Over the past quarter-century, the writer-director Nicole Holofcener has been turning out astutely observed ensemble dramedies that tend to orbit around flawed characters and subtly articulated themes. It's odd to think of Holofcener's low-concept, modestly budgeted indies as radical. But she has carved out a niche for herself with films that defy easy description. |
Leaving HBO Max at the end of July, Holofcener's second feature, "Lovely & Amazing" (2002), builds to an unforgettable scene in which an actress (Emily Mortimer), worried that she is not "sexy" enough to get good roles, insists that a fellow actor (Dermot Mulroney) honestly assess her body. What follows is flirty, wounding and beautifully realized, the capper to a film about women who frequently assess their own bodies, whether they're conscious of it or not. Brenda Blethyn co-stars as the actress's mother, who is stuck in the hospital because of complications from liposuction surgery. And Catherine Keener does typically stinging work as a failed craftswoman who considers having an affair with her teenage boss at a one-hour photo mart (Jake Gyllenhaal). |
Female self-image is again the theme of Holofcener's excellent "Please Give" (2010), only here it's more about what's inside than outside. Keener again stars, as Kate, a well-to-do New Yorker who runs a high-end used furniture store with her husband (Oliver Platt), selling items mostly plucked from estate sales. Meanwhile, the two are waiting for the cranky old lady in the adjacent apartment to die so they can buy it and build out their own space. |
Holofcener writes good parts for Amanda Peet and Rebecca Hall, too, but "Please Give" is most compelling when Kate's moral calculation takes center stage. She knows that she is a vulture by trade and by temperament, so she assuages her guilt by giving generously to the homeless or, in one embarrassing moment, offering leftovers to a Black man who is actually just waiting for a table. SCOTT TOBIAS |
Stream "Lovely & Amazing" on HBO Max. |
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