By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Rapp Party: Gen Art Toasts Bloodless 'Winter Passing' in Chelsea
Big news on the party front tonight as playwright Adam Rapp’s film directing debut Winter Passing gets a Gen Art preview and hoochie after-bash over at Crush. And think of the bargain: Just $25 for all this:
–Beverages from 9-11 p.m. provided by Johnnie Walker, Smart Water, Smirnoff, and Stella Artois;
–Rapp introducing the film in Chelsea and reminding at least a dozen autograph seekers that no, he is not his brother Anthony;
–The long, slushy, post-screening walk to Crush, about a million miles removed from anything in what should look and feel like Siberia by the time the open bar closes;
—Winter Passing itself, sort of a perfect storm of anemic indie conventions: An ingenue daughter (Zooey Deschanel) estranged from her famous, tortured writer dad (Ed Harris); a sensitive retard played by an A-lister (Will Ferrell); cats with leukemia; a 1,000 mile bus trip; bad 20-something sex; lurching dinner table epiphanies; nature montages impaled on folk medleys; and the quasi-familial pastiche that reconciles everything in a third act as graceless as wet cement.
While Passing does not quite float up from the same burbling gastric swamp responsible for, say, Flannel Pajamas, it implodes spectacularly enough as Rapp’s rambling drama-ectomy removes any sense of conflict the way one might remove an opponent’s spine while playing Mortal Kombat. It seems unlikely–if not impossible–that such inoffensive principals could be so repellent together, but you would not expect the vice-president to shoot someone either, so chalk it up to bad chemistry or a misaligned cosmos or whatever. Shit happens.
At any rate, just make sure you get that wristband from the Gen Art folks, because you will need the Scotch, vodka and beer afterward, and probably all at once in a signature cocktail called the Rapp Party. Who said $25 does not go a long way in New York?
Hmm, I saw this movie last year in Toronto and I liked it well enough. It wasn’t my favorite movie of the Toronto fest, but I enjoyed Will Ferrel’s preformance.
It has a pretty good cast too. Might have to check this out if it gets a wider release.