Saw it at the Schubert Theater in Boston, so I'm admittedly already a fan of the individual styles of Louis C. K. and Joe List, hoping to see something that falls in-between. This film landed on the mark. It showed off a sense of Louis' striking instinct for pushing the boundaries of when I'd be comfortable to laugh (especially around others) and the mindful, vulnerable wit of Joe List being his whole self. From both ends, it inspires something in me that shows off a new independent flavor of laughter that leaps beyond a stale majority of comedy found sifting through on streaming providers or more mainstream outlets. This movie is makes me feel like my vegetables taste like candy. At it's core, this is a movie about something all too familiar to most of us now - about substance use and mental health. Packaged as a movie about getting sober and getting gay, striving to be better because you've seen the consequences of letting go of the reigns. Consequences made by people you still love, no less. Thematically, this film confronts what it's like to have to set boundaries at someone else's party when you're whole life has been full of party fouls. What it's like to have to find the hilarity when someone actively forces you to play something else so they can continue dancing their way. We follow these characters as they balance selfishness and selflessness, seeing the chaos of letting unfold a deep spiral of mental health carnage made bare by generations of bad parents with redemptive intentions. Family includes a whole household literally head by the Priest from Spotlight showing us how you can negatively affect the youth even just by sitting on a boat in silence. Youth that grows to be pushover dads or selfcentered matriarchs both afraid to speak up about the elephant in the room. I endorse the work put into this feature here, and even though these clowns are slinging it around the circuit like it's a bell for turkey dinner, it makes me happy that they're doing it for the right reasons. Even if no one asks me not even once if I'm doing ok after someone I love died. I'm happy even to be a fly on the wall while they show something real in cinema for audiences who need to check their heads. Because it's like getting to stop thinking about your own problems while you're somehow helping even just to be present with someone else's shit for around 90 minutes. I'd say this movie tempted me with trying to become better myself, know my own boundaries, and feel like laughing even when telling the truth gets me in trouble. Trouble lasts just as long as I let it feel too real and not enough funny. Real and funny cinema, like La Vita e Bella but less mass murder and more drunk New England summer lakehouse getaway trips where listening to jazz makes you gay.
Review of Fourth of July
