In the clown's face

Hello I Must Be Going

Crit

Wow--file under "expected to like, but not this much": reminded me in many ways of Tiny Furniture, in part because the adult protagonist has moved back in with her family, in part because Melanie Lynskey is very much a Lena Dunham type, pretty but not waif-thin, so her character has to believe herself in constant need of trimming her ship. But the sex here is much happier, if equally angsty, as Amy, recently dumped by her husband from what she thought was a happy marriage ("I had the carpet pulled out from under me, or the wool pulled over my eyes, or maybe I had the carpet pulled over my eyes"--I guess I should mention how much I like the funny sad writing) finds herself falling into an affair with the teenage stepson (Christopher Abbott) of a potential client of her father's law firm (it's complicated). Nicely drawn characters we care about, and they say smart and funny things: that pretty much defines a flick I like.