Review: ‘I’ll Be Right There,’ starring Edie Falco, Jeannie Berlin, Kayli Carter, Charlie Tahan, Michael Beach, Sepideh Moafi, Michael Rapaport and Bradley Whitford

September 10, 2024

by Carla Hay

Jeannie Berlin, Edie Falco and Kayli Carter in “I’ll Be Right There” (Photo courtesy of Brainstorm Media)

“I’ll Be Right There”

Directed by Brendan Walsh

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in New York state, the comedy/drama film “I’ll Be Right There” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans and one person of Middle Eastern heritage) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A queer divorcée, whose family members are over-reliant on her, juggles family problems with her sexually fluid love life.

Culture Audience: “I’ll Be Right There” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and “slice of life” movies with good acting.

Charlie Tahan in “I’ll Be Right There” (Photo courtesy of Brainstorm Media)

“I’ll Be Right There” has neurotic characters and a meandering storyline that can be frustrating and funny. Edie Falco’s performance improves this comedy/drama that can inspire debate about family loyalty versus co-dependency. Viewers who expect definitive conclusions and predictable character developments probably won’t like this movie very much. Although there are some moments that seem to be straight from a sitcom, “I’ll Be Right There” ultimately takes a believable approach to the reality that most people can’t or won’t change their flaws in just a few months and might not change their flaws at all.

Directed by Brendan Walsh and written by Jim Beggarly, “I’ll Be Right There” had its world premiere at the 2023 Hamptons International Film Festival. The movie, which was filmed in New York state, takes place in an unnamed small suburban city in New York state. It’s the type of small city where neighbors know each other’s personal business, and gossip quickly spreads.

“I’ll Be Right There” begins with main character Wanda (played by Falco) accompanying her hypochondriac, widowed mother Grace (played by Jeannie Berlin) to a doctor’s appointment. Grace, who has been a longtime smoker, is convinced that she has lung cancer. Grace and Wanda are waiting for Grace’s physician Dr. Hoover (played by Fred Grandy) to tell them what are the results of Grace’s recent physical exam.

As an example of the movie’s somewhat dark comedy, Dr. Hoover cheerfully delivers a good news/bad news diagnosis: The good news is that Grace does not have lung cancer. The bad news is that she has leukemia, but she hasn’t shown symptoms of leukemia yet. Dr. Hoover concludes the appointment by telling Grace: “You might die of something else entirely before the leukemia ever presents itself.” After the appointment, Grace’s reaction is to immediately light up a cigarette.

Wanda works as a bookkeeper and has been divorced for many years. She has a prickly relationship with her unreliable ex-husband Henry (played by Bradley Whitford), who has three sons under the age of 12 with his current wife Allison, who is not seen in the movie. Henry still lives in the area, but he spends almost all of his family time with Allison and their children instead of the children he has with Wanda.

Henry and Wanda have two children in their 20s: Sarah (played by Kayli Carter) is pregnant with her first child (a boy) and due to give birth soon. Sarah is eight months pregnant in the beginning of the movie; the father of the child is her fiancé Eugene (played by Jack Mulhern), who is unsophisticated and passive. Sarah is determined to get married in a traditional wedding before she gives birth. Wanda and Henry’s other adult child is Mark (played by Charlie Tahan), a recovering crack cocaine addict who is a habitual liar and chronically unemployed.

The movie barely shows Wanda doing any work at her job. Instead, she spends most of her time being at the beck and call of Grace, Mark and Sarah. Mark has a love/hate relationship with Wanda. At times, he complains that she is inattentive and that he has abandonment issues because of Wanda. Other times, Mark expresses deep resentment toward Wanda because he thinks she’s interfering in his life too much. Grace and Sarah are very close to Wanda—perhaps too close because they expect her to be like a therapist and a chauffeur for them.

Wanda isn’t saintly, but she shows extraordinary patience in dealing with the volatility and ungratefulness in her family. Later in the movie, she gives a monologue where she makes it clear that not only does she like having her family depend on her so much, but she also lives for this co-dependency and it’s what gives her the most joy, even when it can be very emotionally painful. Adding to the complexity of the character, Wanda is overly involved in her adult children’s life, and yet they still keep some secrets from her.

Meanwhile, Wanda (who doesn’t say what her sexual identity is) has a big secret of her own: She’s been dating an English professor named Sophie (played by Sepideh Moafi), who’s about 15 to 20 years younger than Wanda and who goes over to Wanda’s house for their sexual trysts. Wanda mentions at one point in the movie that dating women is a fairly new experience for Wanda. Sophie and Wanda are semi-closeted in different ways. Wanda doesn’t want her neighbors to know that she’s dating a woman, and she’s not ready to tell her family members.

Sophie doesn’t have a problem with Wanda’s neighbors knowing about their affair, but Sophie won’t introduce Wanda to anyone else in her life, and she doesn’t want Wanda to come over to Sophie’s place. Wanda and Sophie don’t go out on “couple’s dates”; they only have sexual hookups. It bothers Wanda that Sophie won’t let Wanda into other parts of Sophie’s life because Wanda wants to be more than just a casual fling to Sophie. Wanda tells Sophie about these concerns, but Sophie explains that she likes to keep Sophie’s life in compartments.

At the same time, Wanda has been dating an emotionally insecure restaurateur named Marshall (played by Michael Rapaport), who is in love with her, but Wanda does not feel the same way about him. Wanda hasn’t told Marshall that she is cheating on him and that she’s not heterosexual. Marshall is a bit of whiner who likes to complain about getting old and about an injury that he got from a broken wrist a long time ago.

Around the same time that Wanda is having these love-life complications, she becomes re-acquainted with a former classmate from high school named Albert Newman (played by Michael Beach), a divorced dad who has recently moved back to the area and is working as a firefighter. When Albert was in high school, he was bullied for being small and scrawny. As an adult, he is now muscular and confident.

Early on in the movie, there’s a scene that’s an example of how Wanda lets herself be used as a go-to problem solver and counselor for every real or imagined challenge in her family. Wanda is late going to Mark’s therapy session because Sarah has insisted that Wanda go with Sarah to a hospital. Sarah is having an emotional meltdown because she hasn’t felt her unborn baby kick for about 10 hours, so she assumes the baby might be dead. It turns out to be a false alarm.

Viewers might have varying feelings about Wanda’s co-dependency, based on how they think adults should or should not be involved in the lives of their parents or adult children. Is Wanda in the habit of rescuing her family members, or is she enabling them? “I’ll Be Right There” offers realistic performances, led by Falco, who has such exceptional talent, she can make even the silliest scene look somewhat credible. “I’ll Be Right There” is a solidly entertaining character study that doesn’t force the characters to go through drastic changes, but allows these characters to simply be who they are, whether it makes people comfortable or not.

Brainstorm Media released “I’ll Be Right There” in select U.S. cinemas on September 6, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on September 27, 2024.

Review: ‘The Boys in the Boat,’ starring Callum Turner, Joel Edgerton, Jack Mulhern, Hadley Robinson, James Wolk, Peter Guinness and Chris Diamantopoulos

December 15, 2023

by Carla Hay

Bruce Herbelin-Earle, Callum Turner and Jack Mulhern in “The Boys in the Boat” (Photo by Laurie Sparham/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Boys in the Boat”

Directed by George Clooney

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1936, in the United States and in Germany, the dramatic film “The Boys in the Boat” (based on the non-fiction book of the same name) features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Against the odds, the University of Washington junior varsity rowing team becomes a winning team in the United States, and competes in the 1936 Olympics against the Nazi German team that is expected to win the gold medal. 

Culture Audience: “The Boys in the Boat” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker George Clooney and old-fashioned sports movies that are conventional to a fault.

Chris Diamantopoulos, James Wolk, Joel Edgerton and Dominic Tighe in “The Boys in the Boat” (Photo by Laurie Sparham/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Boys in the Boat” is the cinematic equivalent of stale and lukewarm comfort food for people who like formulaic underdog sports movies with no surprises. The acting performances are competent, but the screenplay and direction have too many dull clichés. Even if you didn’t know the true story on which this movie is based, it’s very easy to know how the movie is going to end within the first 15 minutes of watching the film.

Directed by George Clooney and written by Mark L. Smith, “The Boys in the Boat” is based on Daniel James Brown’s 2013 non-fiction book of the same name. The movie waters down, oversimplifies, and omits many interesting facts from this true story. The end results are a plodding and monotonous catalogue-type film, where most of the characters are either stereotypes or utterly forgettable.

“The Boys in the Boat” movie takes place in 1936, when the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression. In the city of Seattle, a financially struggling, working-class student named Joe Rantz (played by Callum Turner) is on the verge of being removed from enrollment at the University of Washington because he hasn’t been able to pay his tuition. In the beginning of the movie, Joe is told by a university official that Joe has two weeks to pay the tuition that he owes, or else he can no longer be enrolled in the university.

As luck would have it in a movie like “The Boys in the Boat,” Joe finds out that he can make the money that he needs in a short period of time if he gets chosen for the university’s junior varsity rowing team: the Washington Huskies. Only eight students will be chosen from a group of about 100 students who have tried out for these coveted slots. The team’s head coach Al Ulbrickson (played by Joel Edgerton) is a typical no-nonsense sports leader who warns everyone that being on this rowing team is physical torture, and most of the people who want to be on the team don’t have what it takes to succeed in rowing.

It’s not spoiler information to say that Joe makes the team, because the movie’s trailer and other marketing materials already reveal who’s on the team. The other students who are chosen are Don Hume (played by Jack Mulhern), Shorty Hunt (played by Bruce Herbelin-Earle), Jim McMillin (played by Wil Coban), Chuck Day (played by Thomas Elms), Johnny White (played by Thomas Stephen Varey) and Gordy Adam (played by Joel Phillimore). Nathan Coy (played by Tom Claxton) is the team’s reserve member. Glenn Morry (played by Frankie Fox) is the team’s coxswain.

Joe’s love interest is Joyce Simdars (played by Hadley Robinson), who was his crush in the fourth grade, but she moved away with her family and hasn’t seen Joe in years. But lo and behold, there she is at the University of Washington as a student. And when Joyce and Joe see each other again, she immediately reminds a slightly embarrassed Joe about the love note that he gave to her when they were children. Joyce, who comes from an affluent family, says she mainly enrolled in the university to get away from her religious mother. The romance between Joe and Joyce goes exactly the way you think it’s going to go in this type of movie.

Joe’s family background is reduced to a soundbite, in a scene where he tells the team’s boat maker George Pocock (played by Peter Guinness) that he’s been on his own since he was 14 years old. The character of George is a sports movie stereotype of a wise elder who’s not the main coach but who gives mentor advice to troubled athletes. Joe’s mother died when Joe was about 4 years old. His father Harry Rantz left to find work when Joe was in high school, and he didn’t come back. Joe briefly mentions he has a stepmother who had two young sons in her care. “It worked out best for everybody,” Joe says of his fractured family.

Really? Because in real life, things were much more difficult for Joe than how it’s described in the movie. In real life, Joe had an older brother named Fred, who is completely erased from the story. And although it’s true that Joe’s father Harry left, what the movie doesn’t mention is that Harry took his wife and stepsons with him. According to “The Boys in the Boat” book, Joe’s stepmother disliked Joe and insisted to Harry that Joe had to be left behind to fend for himself.

This traumatic abandonment is barely explored in the movie, which failed to give a deeper understanding of Joe’s intense motivation to succeed on the rowing team, other than the need to get money for tuition. Instead, the movie turns this parental abandonment into a glib line that Joe says about things working out for the best. You can almost do a countdown to the scene when deadbeat dad Harry (played by Alec Newman) shows up again at a certain point in Joe’s life.

“The Boys in the Boat” makes the same mistake that mediocre and bad movies about sports teams tend to make: Instead of giving distinct and memorable personalities to several of the team members, only one or two team members get this type of showcase. But even in this area, “The Boys in the Boat” falls short with trite dialogue for the two team members who get the most screen time: Joe and Don. Joe is in the team’s seventh boat position to set the pace, while Don is in the eighth position as the stroke anchor.

Joe is a typical star of a team in a sports underdog movie: He’s talented but he had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get to where he is. Joe is a good guy who’s a little bit introverted. He’s very shy when it comes to dating, which is supposed to make him look endearing to the viewers of “The Boys in the Boat.”

In these types of generic sports movies, the protagonist can’t be completely confident or completely privileged, or else the protagonist won’t be “relatable.” But “The Boys in the Boat” filmmakers don’t want to make Joe have too many hardships, or else that won’t make him “relatable” either. Even when Joe experiences a “will he or won’t he stay on the team” moment, there’s no real gravitas, because this moment comes and goes so quickly in the movie.

Every star on the team has a rival on the same team, who could either become a close ally or a bitter enemy. In this case, Joe’s competition for being the team’s biggest standout is Don, who’s even more socially awkward than Joe when it comes to dating. At least Joe can initiate a conversation with a potential love interest. In a scene taking place at a school dance, Don is afraid to look at and talk to a woman who looks at him flirtatiously when she’s sitting about six feet away from him.

Don’s rowing teammates are at the same dance. They know that Don is a talented piano player. And so, when they see that Don is having a hard time connecting with any women at this dance, what do his teammates do? They get up on stage and tell a reluctant Don that he has to play piano for the crowd, with the ulterior motive being that this performance will impress any women who could be Don’s love interest.

Don starts off playing bashfully, but he quickly improves and wins over the people in the audience, who respond with loud cheering. It gives Don the confidence he needs when that woman who was looking at him earlier has an inevitable conversation with him at the dance. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

The coaches in the movie are also fairly predictable. Coach Ulbrickson is typically gruff and tough in training and during rowing matches, but he shows a compassionate side when necessary. His two assistant coaches—Coach Tom Bolles (played by James Wolk) and Coach Brown (played by Dominic Tighe)—are mostly inconsequential characters. Coach Bolles is the more upbeat counterpart to frequently scowling Coach Ulbrickson, while Coach Brown is written with an almost completely blank personality.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer sports journalist Royal Brougham (played by Chris Diamantopoulos) shows up occasionally to give the coaches information on how rival teams are doing. The movie becomes a checklist of stepping stones for the team, until the Huskies reach their ultimate challenge: competing in the 1936 Olympics against the frontrunner rowing team from Nazi-controlled Germany. There is no suspense, because there would be no “Boys in the Boat” movie if the villain team won.

Along the way, viewers of “The Boys in the Boat” are constantly pounded over the head with corny dialogue saying that because the University of Washington’s junior varsity team members come from working-class backgrounds, they “deserve” to win more than any affluent and privileged students from opposing teams. This heavy-handed messaging is especially hammered into the Pacific Coast Regatta scenes, where the Washington Huskies face off against the better-funded and more experienced Cal Bears from the University of California at Berkeley. It’s reverse snobbery that’s kind of obnoxious and hypocritical, considering that “The Boys in the Boat” director/producer Clooney comes from the same type of affluent and privileged family background that is frequently insulted in this hokey movie.

And therein lies what is ultimately the undoing of “The Boys in the Boat.” By trying too hard to look “relatable” by appealing to “working-class/common-person” sensibilities, everything is “dumbed down” and ends up looking too phony in the movie. “The Boys in the Boat” needed to give audience members more credit in being able to handle the grittier and more complex nuances of these real rowing team members, instead of forcing these athletes into looking like “too good to be true” heroes with cardboard personalities.

Amazon MGM Studios will release “The Boys in the Boat” in U.S. cinemas on December 25, 2023.

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