Taglines: Tagliness: Outcasts in life. Allies in suburbia.
Punk-rocker turned suburban mom, Kelly (a fantastic Juliette Lewis), is nostalgic for a life she can no longer have and uncertain of a future she doesn’t yet fit in. Seventeen-year-old Cal (Jonny Weston in a breakthrough performance) is frustrated at his lack of control over the hand he’s been dealt. When the two strike up an unlikely friendship, it’s the perfect spark needed to thrust them both back to life.
Kelly and Cal stars Juliette Lewis, Jonny Weston, Cybill Shepherd, Margaret Colin and Josh Hopkins, and premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in March 2014. The film tells the story of a riot grrrl turned housewife (Lewis) who strikes up an unlikely friendship with her 17-year-old neighbor (Weston). The film opened at SXSW to positive reviews from Variety, The Wrap and other sites. It made best of the fest lists with Vogue and Variety.[16] Senior writer Karen Valby at Entertainment Weekly compared Kelly & Cal to the work of filmmakers Nicole Holofcener and Alexander Payne.
Review for Kelly and Cal
This movie is like finding and enjoying a perfectly ripened piece of fruit, then taking a step forward, slipping on the peel, falling backwards and cracking your head on the pavement! Now what do I mean by that statement?
It’s very simple to understand – the film starts with Kelly meeting Cal, both are highly spirited and living lives very out of place for their charged up personalities. Kelly is confined by her new role as a mother living in a very American suburban middle class neighborhood after her punk rocker all girl band background. Cal is young, handsome, and full of the capacity to experience the ecstasy of life, but he too is confined in life by his disability, wheelchair, and a bitter outlook toward his future.
After they discover each other a glorious friendship develops with some of the finest dialog you can find in a movie. Kelly sees in Cal her youth which she obviously misses. Cal sees in Kelly everything he wants to experience in life but cannot or (more likely) is afraid to do because he fears failure more than his disability. Through Kelly, Cal breaks out of his shell and at the same time Kelly develops an empathy for Cal because he has projected his feelings toward her in sexual advances and his willingness to get back into his artistic abilities. Then reality strikes, and Kelly must step back from this complex and needy friendship. At this point the story starts to fall apart.
The movie turns into a ridiculous melodrama of Cal discarding everything Kelly helped him through both psychologically and physically. Kelly goes running after him as if she can save him from himself. Why the writer and director did this I do not understand because they took the relationship of a disabled youth and a frustrated older woman who both found an inner fulfillment in each other that could have been so compelling and bold this movie would have possibly been real box office material. Why not have the suburban housewife have an affair with a disabled youth? Could it possibly be that it was a ‘too European’ idea?
Kelly and Cal
Directed by: Jen McGowan
Screenplay by: Amy Lowe Starbin
Starring: Juliette Lewis, Jonny Weston, Josh Hopkins, Cybill Shepherd, Lucy Owen, Margaret Colin, Victoria Barabas, Alysia Reiner
Production Design by: Natasha Gerasimova
Cinematography by: Philip Lott
Film Editing by: David Hopper
Costume Design by: Sarah Beers
Set Decoration by: Philippa Culpepper
Music by: Toby Chu
MPAA Rating: None.
Studio: IFC Films
Release Date: March 7, 2014
Visits: 49
