I found this to be a quiet and effective indie drama, with characters and dialogue that came across to me as real. It contains excellent acting, very able direction (Ira Sachs), and a sharp screenplay from Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias.
After the passing of his father, Brian Jardine (Greg Kinnear), his wife Kathy (Jennifer Ehle), and their 13-year-old son Jake (Theo Taplitz) relocate from Manhattan to the apartment left to Brian (and his sister) by his dad. They'll also be the new landlords for the store below the apartment, a small dress shop.
The dress shop is owned and operated by Leonor Calvelli (Paulina Garcia), who lives nearby with her son Tony (Michael Barbieri) Leonor was very close with Brian's father and he made sure her store rent stayed the same, despite the new bohemian upsurge in the neighborhood. I might mention seeing Garcia here reminded me of her mesmerizing performance in the 2013 movie "Gloria". By the way if you're expecting to see a lot of the superb actor Alfred Molina, he only appears briefly in 2 scenes as Leonor's friend and attorney.
One of the main themes of the film will be the immediate friendship that springs up between Tony and Jake. They both aspire to go to LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts, with Tony for acting and Jake for illustration and art.
With the dress shop lease coming due and Brian being under financial pressure, as well as pressure from his sister, the proposal to bring the rent up to market conditions for the struggling small business will bring immediate friction and tension to the 2 families' relationships, and especially the strong bonding that had developed between the two teens Jake and Tony.
All in all, my interest was captured from the start by this quietly powerful drama and its believable characters, and I was engrossed till its conclusion.
After the passing of his father, Brian Jardine (Greg Kinnear), his wife Kathy (Jennifer Ehle), and their 13-year-old son Jake (Theo Taplitz) relocate from Manhattan to the apartment left to Brian (and his sister) by his dad. They'll also be the new landlords for the store below the apartment, a small dress shop.
The dress shop is owned and operated by Leonor Calvelli (Paulina Garcia), who lives nearby with her son Tony (Michael Barbieri) Leonor was very close with Brian's father and he made sure her store rent stayed the same, despite the new bohemian upsurge in the neighborhood. I might mention seeing Garcia here reminded me of her mesmerizing performance in the 2013 movie "Gloria". By the way if you're expecting to see a lot of the superb actor Alfred Molina, he only appears briefly in 2 scenes as Leonor's friend and attorney.
One of the main themes of the film will be the immediate friendship that springs up between Tony and Jake. They both aspire to go to LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts, with Tony for acting and Jake for illustration and art.
With the dress shop lease coming due and Brian being under financial pressure, as well as pressure from his sister, the proposal to bring the rent up to market conditions for the struggling small business will bring immediate friction and tension to the 2 families' relationships, and especially the strong bonding that had developed between the two teens Jake and Tony.
All in all, my interest was captured from the start by this quietly powerful drama and its believable characters, and I was engrossed till its conclusion.