It's Sunday in New York and it's raining -and-what better way to keep alee than shelter yourself for an hour or two in your local picturehouse. Only make sure that Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories, which opened a fortnight ago, is on the bill. If you were one of the many people that thought they had Adam Sandler sussed out, think again, not that he wasn't talented to the nines in his own certain milieu - but you can bank on seeing him pull out the finest party trick from his bag in this latest release. And one thing is certain- it's not easy to go toe to toe with Dustin Hoffman who has recently entered the ranks of being an octogenarian and with a touch of silver on his dome is still the same golden child he was in his Benjamin Braddock days and just as neurotically charming. Given the ensemble situation there are of course bound to be comparisons to a Woody Allen film, but there is something ever so distinctive about The Meyerowitz Stories, it enters a brave and fearless void without much of a backstory and by the time you realize that - you are already vacuumed in.
There are some surprise faces that present themselves in the forms of Candace Bergen and Sigourney Weaver but the best surprise though a decidedly more subtle one was in Elizabeth Marvel's Jean who humbly nabbed every scene she so graced in this story of an eccentric family on the outs who are attempting to work their way in. If location shots are what you are after, there are many ripe for the picking, from the shop-lit Manhattan streets to over the hills and not so far away in South of Brooklyn. Adam Driver who stars briefly maybe had one train stop between the sets of Girls and Meyerowitz Stories which is seemingly hipsterless, if one can imagine a New York that way inclined.
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| Sandler and Stiller somewhat serious style. |
And Grace Van Patten who plays Eliza, the daughter of Sandler's Danny Meyerowitz is not to be missed, showing off her pipes at her grandpappy's piana and as a budding filmmaker who features herself in commedia dell'arte pornography films that make her family ever so proud of her, when you see the family you'll know why. And though my mise en scene gag may have been unintentionally ripped off - this picture should be placed firmly on your must see list of 2017, one doesn't need to have any such psychic abilities to intuit there will be precious few more where this one came from.