Family Obligations (Kenneth R. Frank, USA, 2019)
Variations on a theme: You can ghost your friends, but you can't disappear your family. Alternatively:
Everywhere you go, there they are. Family. Can't live with them, can't stuff them in a sack and throw them
in a river. Despite some technical struggles, Kenneth R. Frank's Family Obligations
is a quirky but life-affirming independent film that takes a close look at the burdens that family can
begrudgingly lead us to shoulder and the strength and new connections we can develop by doing so.
Variations on a theme: You can ghost your friends, but you can't disappear your family. Alternatively:
Everywhere you go, there they are. Family. Can't live with them, can't stuff them in a sack and throw them
in a river. Despite some technical struggles, Kenneth R. Frank's Family Obligations
is a quirky but life-affirming independent film that takes a close look at the burdens that family can
begrudgingly lead us to shoulder and the strength and new connections we can develop by doing so.
A sudden death in the family results in Peter Steele (Chris Mollica) being pulled back into a family dynamic he had thought he had escaped. In the process of tying up various loose ends, Peter re-connects with Uncle Frank (Frank Failla), whose health is in dire straits, as well as Melanie (Chandler Rosenthal) who is a neighbour of Frank's and a single mother struggling to keep her life together. These new relationships unleash long repressed complex emotions in all characters, and lead us to a hesitantly hopeful ending.
The story and themes the movie explores are familiar, but they are examined with enough nuance and eccentric charm to distinguish the film from others of this ilk. The score by Benjamin Morse is appealingly understated and melodic, while the cast is commendable, with Chandler Rosenthal, who offers a naturalistic and good-natured performance, standing out among her peers. If there is any meaningful critique to be made of the film it is the movie's many relatively minor technical glitches, such as out of synch audio, ragged editing and occasionally mismatched colour palettes, that are surely the result of the film's shoestring budget.
Despite these minor quibbles, Family Obligations is an endearing and sweet film about the ways family can seem a terrible weight, but ultimately is one of life's most meaningful rewards.
The story and themes the movie explores are familiar, but they are examined with enough nuance and eccentric charm to distinguish the film from others of this ilk. The score by Benjamin Morse is appealingly understated and melodic, while the cast is commendable, with Chandler Rosenthal, who offers a naturalistic and good-natured performance, standing out among her peers. If there is any meaningful critique to be made of the film it is the movie's many relatively minor technical glitches, such as out of synch audio, ragged editing and occasionally mismatched colour palettes, that are surely the result of the film's shoestring budget.
Despite these minor quibbles, Family Obligations is an endearing and sweet film about the ways family can seem a terrible weight, but ultimately is one of life's most meaningful rewards.
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