Movie Review: Landline

Landline *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Gillian Robespierre.

Written by: Elisabeth Holm & Gillian Robespierre and Tom Bean. 

Starring: Jenny Slate (Dana), Abby Quinn (Ali), John Turturro (Alan), Edie Falco (Pat), Jay Duplass (Ben), Ali Ahn (Sandra), Marquis Rodriguez (Jed), Jordan Carlos (Ravi), Finn Wittrock (Nate), India Menuez (Sophie), Charlotte Ubben (Allison).

 

When I reviewed Super Dark Times not that long ago, I wondered if we were going to start seeing more films set in the early-to-mid 1990s, if for no other reason than because it would give filmmakers an excuse to not have their characters constantly staring at their phones. Watching Landline, Gillian Robespierre film set in 1995, I am now convinced we will. In both cases, it seems like the filmmakers didn’t want to deal with those glowing boxes we all hold all the time, so they set their films earlier – in Super Dark Times, it allowed the plot to carry out in a way it never could today, and in Landline, the filmmakers also use it as an excuse to make a lot of 1990s jokes about Hillary Clinton or Lorena Bobbitt – some definitely work better than others.

 

The film is Robespierre’s follow-up to her terrific debut film, Obvious Child, a comedy starring Jenny Slate as a young woman, who gets pregnant and has an abortion that doesn’t ruin her life. That film was refreshing in the way it dealt with a host of issues facing women today – and was hilarious to boot. Her follow-up doesn’t reach those heights – she tries to expand her canvas a little bit, with mixed results, but definitely proves she’s still one of the brightest, and funniest, minds in indie film working right now.

 

The film focuses on two sisters – Dana (Slate, again), somewhere in her late 20s, engaged to Ben (Jay Duplass), who is lovable and dorky – and undeniably a tad boring as well – and Ali (Abby Quinn), who is 16, and confident in the way only 16 year olds can be, when the world exists in moral black and whites, and you have it all figured out. Their parents are Alan and Pat – and played by John Turturro and Edie Falco, and their marriage is on the rocks, and they don’t talk about it. When Ali figures out – or thinks she does – than Alan is having an affair, she enlists her sister to try and figure things out, not knowing that Dana herself is cheating on Ben. They debate whether or not to tell Pat – never assuming that she may be smart enough to figure it out for herself.

 

The overarching message of Landline is an obvious, but still important one – life is messy, and no one has all the answers. It would be easy to see Alan as a cheating monster – especially since his reasons for cheating are fairly clichéd – and yet, I don’t think the film does that. It does make it clear just why he may feel this way – Pat is certainly belittling to Alan in a way that would be disheartening for anyone. That doesn’t excuse Alan’s behavior, but it makes it more believable. The relationship between Dana and Ben is also well handled – we often see things in black and white when it comes to infidelity – either blaming the cheating, or sometimes forgiving them as it we understand that their actual relationship wasn’t working. Landline doesn’t do either – but goes somewhat deeper than that.

 

Oddly, it is the coming in Landline that doesn’t always land as well as the family dynamics. I did love the bitter, cynical sisterly sniping between Ali and Dana – they were they comedic highlight (especially since newcomer Quinn more than keeps up with the great Slate). But there is too much other comedy that doesn’t quite work – all those 1990s jokes that feel cheap, or the parade of humiliations that befall Dana at every turn. Slate handles these well – but they’re cheap.

 

Overall though, I think Landline is a good sophomore feature for Robespierre – no, it doesn’t quite reach the heights of her debut, but it shows a willing to stretch, and try something different (it’s no repeat of Obvious Child – and it has more ambition). I look forward to her next film as much as I did to this one following her first film.