Junebug 

Genre: comedy drama

With: Embeth Davidtz (Madeleine), Alessandro Nivola (George Johnston, her husband), Frank Hoyt Taylor (David Wark), Ben McKenzie (Johnny, George’s brother), Amy Adams (Ashley, Johnny’s wife), Celia Weston (Peg, the mother), Scott Wilson (Eugene, the father)

Director: Phil Morrison

Screenplay: Angus MacLachlan

Release: 2005

Studio: Junebug Movie, Epoch Films

Rating: R

MBiS score: 8.1/10

One Thing I Didn’t Know About Robert E. Lee

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Story-line: when Madeleine, who works for an art gallery in Chicago, hears of a little-known painter from North Carolina who produces groundbreaking oeuvres, she decides to pay him a visit. Her new husband, who told her about this Southern Picasso, tags along so he can introduce her to his family who also lives in the Tar Heel State.

Pluses: an evenly competent cast (I just loved Amy Adams as the fawning, earnest sister-in-law), several hilarious sight gags, skilled direction, unconventional cinematography, a screenplay that raises valid points about human psychology and doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable issues.

Minuses: none… although the film may offend admirers of the General. 

Comments: JUNEBUG – even its title seems offbeat to me – is an outlier in American cinema, an original, funny and sometimes disturbing picture that doesn’t overwhelm but relies on its natural pacing and realistic story to hook you. Even when it seeks to oppose city and country folk, it does so with restraint, avoiding the obvious and the easy laugh. As a word of caution, don’t judge its characters too hastily – as I did, I confess! – because your opinion of them may change as the story rolls along. So here’s to JUNEBUG, a very likeable film that keeps things low-key and practices humanity.   

MBiS

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