August the First

It was a really good movie! Secret after secret, after secret! Plus my teacher directed it, so yeah, it was really good.

Hard to believe it's just a debut film! It's a simple but moving story executed with subtlety - what a pleasure it is for a film to assume some intelligence from its viewer and not to beat you over the head with its themes or drag you through tedious didactic dialog. The characters have a reality that verges on documentary, and the quality of directing and acting belie the film's budget. The main downside, as with many debut efforts in film, drama, and novels, is that the scripting is *too* tight - everything that the film introduces enters the plot at some point. If you see a briefcase or an askance look, you know you'll see it again. This breaks the documentary-like spell, since in real life, not everything is so convenient.

Well-traveled and prized on the U.S. fest circuit, dramatically satisfying pic transcends ethnic pigeonholing to emerge as a fine calling card for frosh helmer Lanre Olabisi.

A fascinating, impossible to ignore film. It is weird because it is an African-American SUBURBAN family with all of that suburban baggage... not a "black" film or a film about race. Translate the locale from New Jersey to Chicago or LA, the "foreign" alienated papa from Nigeria to Poland or Poughkeepsie and it still works. Great acting, weird camera angles, delicious and impossible to look away from family issues (we have all been there, at this party, in this house). Great flick!