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emilia jones Gaining a lot of attention as a big star in 2021 sundance winner and eventual best picture oscar winner end, This year should continue to be praised, because she not only starred in cat people, but also wonderlandhad its world premiere today in Park City.
sofia coppola Lead producer of American Diorama Productions, Andrew Durham’s feature writing and directorial debut, is a memorable film that’s unlikely to keep audiences coming back. The end of this adaptation of Alysia Abbott’s moving 2013 memoir about growing up in San Francisco with her widowed father, when gay pride was rife and the AIDS epidemic looming, brought me to tears. This is not a panorama of what happened in the 1970s and 80s, but a personal coming-of-age story about the unconventional relationship between a gay single father and the daughter he must raise alone, after the tragic death of his wife .
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While it’s set in that moment and in that situation, at its core it’s a universal story about family, love, being true to yourself, and being of service to each other when it matters most.
The book and film tell the story of Alicia, whose mother was killed in a car accident in the early 70s, and who moved in with her father, Steve (Scoot McNally) circa 1974 to San Francisco, where he could pursue his dream of writing poetry and come out as a gay man. Of course, some people, including Alysia’s grandmother (Geena Davis), don’t think that’s naturally the best way to raise a young child (Alysia Jr., played by Nessa Dougherty), and sometimes Alysia doesn’t either, Now without a mom, her new biracial family consists of her father’s boyfriends, but Steve is loyal to her and determined to make it all work out. This is their story of a single father trying to raise a child on his own as that child tries to find her place in her “father’s” life and a whole new world. She avoids it all while visiting her grandmother and is naturally curious about everything, making her an undeniable charmer.
About halfway through, that role is taken over by Jones, as Alicia, now in high school, joins her own friends in making fun of her father for “likeing men.” There were growing pains, and she even lashed out at her situation one day herself, calling her father and then-boyfriend Charlie “fags” when he left the room.Charlie (Adam Lambert) says, “Stupid high school friends might say things like that, but you know better than Alicia, anyone’ As a matter of fact, she does, and warm family ties are the most important thing, even though she plans to go to NYU for college, build her own life, and even spend a semester in France, where she finds love with a beautiful French boy. Young love, then a devastating letter from her father telling her he’s sick, and what she’s heard about as a “disease affecting gay men” is on its way. When Steve asks her to come home and help him through, She had no choice. She had to be by his side as he was by her side.
Much of the film is primarily a snapshot in time: the father-daughter bond, full of happiness and tragedy, frustration and understanding. Jones and Dougherty, both actresses who play Alysia at different ages, are excellent, Dougherty is a real find and truly irresistible as a young Alysia. McNairy is excellent, especially the poignant scenes of his heart-to-heart with his daughter as the AIDS epidemic begins to catch up to him. The supporting cast also includes Cody Fern, who is as good as Eddie, who lives in the attic with them, and Maria Bakalova, who makes an authentic impression in a scene at the pharmacy, as Lan Burt does the same in his brief scene as Charlie. Davis is as popular as ever, but her role doesn’t matter.
The producers are Coppola, Durham, Megan Carlson, Siena Oberman, Greg Lauritano and Laure Sudrea. It’s an acquired title at Sundance.
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