Laggies (***1/2)

A laggie sounds like it might be an affectionate British term for what Americans call a slacker, but it may just be an invention of director Lynn Shelton or her screenwriter, Andrea Seigel, referring to someone who has not made much forward progress in life. This would describe 28-year-old Megan (Keira Knightley), who is doing menial work for her indulgent father (Jeff Garlin) and hanging out with her old high school friends despite signs — signs too heavily underlined by the script — that they’ve grown apart. When her longtime boyfriend wants to move forward (by marrying her) and she catches her father cheating on her mother, she retreats.

She does this unconventionally, by hanging out with 16-year-old Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her friends and lying to her boyfriend about her whereabouts. Shelton and Seigel make this unlikely scenario more plausible that it might seem, and work in themes of parental abandonment, infidelity, and teen drinking — and a pet turtle — while making the story cohesive. Sam Rockwell plays Annika’s divorced dad; while Knightley only has a handful of scenes with him, they’re charming enough to credibly set up the later plot developments.

Set in and around Seattle, this is billed as a comedy, and it is funny at times, but it seemed to have almost as much dramatic impact as Shelton’s last film, Your Sister’s Sister. In both cases, she pushes characters together in ways that surprise us —save for the cliché ending — and makes it work.

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viewed 11/7/14 4:15 pm at Ritz 5 and posted 11/7/14

Introducing the Dwights (***1/2)

Apparently someone wasn’t sure what to call this. It was Clubland when it played at the Sundance Film Festival and in its home country, Australia. That’s not the best title because it isn’t about any club scene. But this new one sounds a little too perky, like it might be The Full Monty. In any case, I wasn’t prepared for such a perceptive coming-of-age story wrapped around a seriocomedy about a mother trying to revive a once-promising showbiz career. Brenda Blethyn is the most familiar face, playing an English-born comedienne who pours the resentment of her failed marriage and self-imposed Australian exile into her polished but second-rate act. Her two grown sons, the older of whom has cerebral palsy, chafe in the shadow of her outsize personality. Meanwhile the younger one (Khan Chittenden) meets a girl, played by the promising Emma Booth. Their scenes together are alone worth seeing the movie for. Portraying burgeoning sexuality in the halting, clumsy way in which most people probably first experience it, the movie tenderly tackles turf that Hollywood pretty much ceded back in the 1980s, or at any rate has reduced to a dirty joke. Introducing the Dwights definitely has humorous moments, yet so often they’re right in the middle of the sad parts, and I loved that. I also appreciated that, although the story is really about the boy becoming a man, the female characters are also strong. The acting is also excellent all around, including Richard Wilson as the slightly goofy older son. No matter the title, this is a movie that’s heartbreaking and uplifting all at once.

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