As Juno Temple (Killer Joe)—playing a glitter-sweating stripper named McKenna—grinds and gyrates on Kathryn Hahn (Parks & Recreation) in a private booth in a strip club, staring seductively, deeply, into the older Hahn’s eyes, it’s a perfect representation of everything that’s right with Afternoon Delight, the new cringe comedy written and directed by Jill Soloway (who formerly produced Six Feet Under), though things don’t stay right for long.

Hahn plays Rachel, a pretty housewife whose sexless marriage with her workaholic husband Jeff (How I Met Your Mother‘s Josh Radnor) has brought them to the club in hopes of recharging their libidos. Her nervous reluctance has rendered her stiff as a board under the perky body undulating before her. The warm, rose-colored lighting is clean and moody, and Solloway’s camera gets in close, never shying away from the intimacy.

“How old are you?” asks Rachel, breathless. “I’m 19!” squeaks McKenna. Rachel tenses up some more. “Oh my god—that’s young.” The frazzled way in which Hahn delivers the sharply-written, oddball dialogue is spot-on. “I had a baby,” she blurts, rejecting McKenna’s attempt to lift up her shirt, referring to the birth of she and Jeff’s five-year-old son, Logan. It’s after the steamy exotic encounter when things begin to go south.

You see, Rachel decides that inviting McKenna—a stranger who we discover later to be a whore—to stay in the guest room of her family’s beautiful home in the affluent Silver Lake neighborhood of L.A. is a great idea. Why? Probably because she found herself surprisingly titillated by the private dance, though she swears she’s determined to “rescue” McKenna from her demeaning lifestyle. But what about Logan? It’s fine—McKenna will make a great nanny! How does Jeff feel about all this? Well, Rachel never consulted him about it, and he doesn’t feel comfortable with putting up a stranger, let alone a stripper/whore (crazy, right?), but hell—at least she’s cute! The whole arrangement is so contrived, so unbelievable, that your eyes will be ready to fall out of their sockets from rolling so much.

What inflames the insanity is that Hahn comes off as a smart, wise-cracking, perceptive woman. “How can I complain? Women in Darfur walk 14 miles to get water and get raped on the way,” she pontificates, in one of a handful of egregiously shoehorned-in therapy sequences featuring Jane Lynch (admittedly hilarious) as her shrink. Sure, she’s got marital frustrations and is locked in the same loop of malaise that a lot of stay-at-home moms find themselves stuck in, but she isn’t stupid—even an idiot could foresee the catastrophic repercussions of her ridiculously short-sighted decision.

Where Afternoon Delight is really great, however, is when it’s in Apotow mode, best represented in scenes involving Rachel yammering on and gossiping with her friends, fellow housewives with poker-playing, cigar-smoking, neglectful husbands. At one of their swanky homes, the ladies drunkenly reminisce about their now-long-gone sorority years. The always dependable Michaela Watkins acts as pack leader, an overly-enthusiastic soccer mom who is constantly pestering Hahn about helping out at the JCC. When Hahn, sweating alcohol, insists that they lock eyes as they toast wine glasses (interrupting the story Watkins is desperately trying to tell the group), Watkins irately refuses to return the gaze. Hahn just stares…and stares…until Watkins grudgingly obliges. Hahn ups the squirm-in-your-seat factor when she poses the mind-numbing question, “Has anybody here wondered what their aborted children would be like?”

Focus is what’s sorely lacking here, tonally. The smart-ass exchanges between the comedy-centric ensemble generally read as light-hearted and clever, no edgier than what you’d see on The Office. Then, abruptly, Solloway throws in a dark, atmospheric scene that looks ripped straight out of a Soderbergh drama. A prime example is one in which McKenna invites Rachel on a run to visit one of her Johns. Rachel watches on, repulsed, terrified, and unsettled, as McKenna rides the bear-bellied client, who reaches his hand out to Rachel, pleading with her to grasp it. It’s a harrowing scene that works cinematically, but feels woefully out of place after we’d just seen Rachel joking around and making witty remarks at a JCC function. The juxtaposition just feels wrong.

Afternoon Delight ends with a sigh, dissipating into nothing, but Solloway nevertheless exhibits some good writing and directing ability in the lead up. She has a way with words, and every quip and snide remark she wrote into the script is laugh-worthy. It’s great dialogue, despite it serving a broken larger story. Solloway brilliantly captures the compelling performances put forth by Temple and Hahn, which buoy Afternoon Delight. (The rest of the ensemble, while talented, don’t offer up anything memorable.) Temple’s McKenna is free-spirited, straight-talking, and strangely all-knowing, almost too comfortable in her own skin. Hahn commands the screen at all times—her scrunchy facial expressions can convey anything from disgust, to joy to rage with effortlessness. The two beautiful leading ladies and have enough electricity between them to drive the story forward, but they deserve better than this ill-conceived vehicle.

Afternoon Delight trailer:

Emanuel and the Truth about Fishes

Sitting in the 9am screening of Francesca Gregorini’s Emanuel and the Truth about Fishes, I was surrounded by sleepy film fans and people uncertain of what to expect from what they were about to see. Myself, I had taken an interest in Gregorini’s film as soon as I saw the synopsis hit the Sundance web page late last year. I then watched the interview with her on the Sundance YouTube channel and became increasingly eager to see her story.

Emanuel and the Truth about Fishes was an incredible artistic, poignant and heartfelt tale drawing upon Gregorini’s personal issues about loss, guilt and pain whilst focusing on the courage to overcome individual trauma. The narrative also highlights the strong emotional connection humans can hold for each other, and in Emanuel’s case (portrayed by Kaya Scodelario), the effects on a troubled child longing to find a mother figure in her life.

Emanuel meets Linda (Jessica Biel), the mysterious lady who moves in next door, she is a new mother it would seem and Emanuel is instantly intrigued by this woman. Their relationship grows when Emanuel volunteers to babysit Linda’s newborn baby, and develop an affectionate bond towards each other.

Kaya Scodelario is the heart of this story, her emotion is so unbelievably real throughout the entire film – if not lead astray by Hollywood, her career will only continue to progress and her performances, excel. Many closed-minded men may disagree as the film was extremely feminine and focused on trauma only women can really relate to. Others that may focus more on dialogue could find faults within the screenplay as some criticized it as being very “written after attending a screenwriting seminar” feel. However, Emanuel and the Truth about Fishes is overall a fantastic achievement for Francesca Gregorini and an absolute pleasure to watch.

RATING: 9.4

A.C.O.D

Going into this film I undoubtedly had expectations in regards to it being a comedy, as the chosen cast were renowned for their humour. Adam Scott and Amy Poehler work as such an amazing comedic couple in Parks and Recreation that knowing their characters were the complete opposite of that in A.C.O.D, where Poehler is now Scott’s stepmother – I expected hilarity to ensue. Ultimately I was very disappointed with the lack of overall chemistry of the cast. That said however, I did enjoy A.C.O.D as it was a ‘good’ comedy; it just didn’t utilize the actors’ comedic potential enough.

Carter (Adam Scott) was unknowingly part of a research study focusing on observing Children of Divorce when he was younger; in fact the woman investigating this study, Dr Judith (Jane Lynch) wrote a book about him and other children involved. As Carter’s brothers wedding in announced and the preparation commences, Carter is responsible for getting his parents to be civil towards each other ready for the ‘big day’. This results in extremely comedic scenes and Carter eventually getting in touch with his old therapist, Dr Judith.

Scott was the perfect guy to represent the awkwardness of Carter’s character as his blunt and dry self-conscious sense of humour really highlights the effects of the trauma he is undergoing through his parents messy relationship.

Although A.C.O.D was not my favourite film of the day, nor is it one likely watch again – I’d certainly say it’s worth seeing at least once. It gives you the chance to see the diversity of Adam Scott’s abilities as an actor as they really shine through, and there are some real classic comedic moments that shouldn’t be overlooked.

RATING: 7.6

Mud

Mud is a story focused on a compassionate fugitive deserted on a lonely island surrounded by the Mississippi Rivers. This is until two adventurous young boys stumble across this rugged man whilst trying to salvage a lost boat. The two boys, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and his best friend Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) are hesitant when they first meet Mud, as he is an unkempt looking man, whose sun dyed skin and worn out appearance gives them reason for caution – that and the fact he has a pistol tucked into his trousers. Mud introduces himself and tells the boys that he is waiting for a woman to meet him and asks if they could bring him food the next time they visit the island.

Tye under the impression that Mud is undergoing this hardship for love wants to help him and Neckbone being his best friend agrees to assist Tye in doing so. There are certain scenes that highlight the personalities of these two young boys and these are what made the film – their chemistry and on screen relationship has been likened to the young boys in Stand by Me.

Illustrating immersive imagination and extracting impeccable performances from all members of the cast, Jeff Nichols did a fantastic job representing a carefully constructed Deep South dramatic feature. Mud will do extremely well through it festival experiences, and will, without a doubt make it onto the big screen with huge success.

RATING: 8.6