Everyday People

source: Everyday People

This movie was amazing. Easily the best (I saw) at Sundance and my favorite movie this year. It's truly puzzling that it wasn't picked up for distribution. There's more room now for the distribution of movies than in any other time in history and movies like this find their place only on cable. It's truly depressing. But, like they say, more people will see it on HBO than if it were in the local cineplex. But, like they say, it's just not the same. If you don't have HBO, get it to watch this truly remarkable story. If you can't get HBO, get the DVD. Surely, someone will release it on DVD???? Sheesh. This is pathetic. jf

This movie is excellent for people who have ever "people watched" Going to a diner, coffee shop, airport and even a casino is a perfect place to people watch. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about stalking, I'm talking about observing. The author/screenwriter must be a "people watcher". I give this movie a 7 out of 10. Right after watching this movie I felt a little empty because we never find out what happened to Samel. I would have liked to know if he called his dad. Also what happened to Jo? Did she take the job at the strip club? But after I reflected on the film, I realized that I didn't need to know. This is a day in the life of these characters. What they do when the day is over is not important.

This is a true independent film made with an authentic independent spirit. However instead of having to go out to a theater to see it (which I would have been more than happy to) I was able to enjoy this fine movie in the comfort of my own home. I was truly impressed by this work which was simultaneously brilliant and simplistic (in a good way) in how it told its various stories. The cast was absolutely brilliant. A few of the actors I recognized but most appeared to be newcomers to film. Regardless they all slipped into their roles as one would slip into a comfortable pair of slippers and literally became those characters on screen. I was thoroughly drawn into the lives of these charismatic individuals that I did not want to let them go. The very best novels in my opinion are those that make you want to know more about what happens to the principal characters after the last line of the last page is read. "Everyday People" had that same effect on me. It was as if I had made new friends only to regrettably lose them a short time later. Part of me wishes they would make a TV series out of this movie and continue to explore the lives of these "people" further. But the realist in me realizes that would ruin the magic. So I'll let my imagination finish the open-ended story lines for me. Bravo.

is something real, and rarely depicted so well; there is no melodrama; just people trying to survive. Besides the fact that there are many excellent, underexposed actors; Reg E. Cathey, as Akbar; as well as many of the younger cast members. The movie holds the interest of the audience, because each character is well-developed and believable. The setting is a deli/restaurant in Brooklyn, which is being taken over by developers; this means that all the employees are out of a job, and the owner also struggles with his conscience as he realizes that: Yes, what he does has an affect on other people. This is a very pertinent story; especially in today's economy; where one either works for a "multi-national corporation" and sells out, as one character tells her mother, or pursues their dream, if they are able. You will totally enjoy this movie, as it is something most people can relate to, and while it portrays cold reality, there is also a hopeful and positive ending. As an addendum I would also say that I hope the writer is considering a follow-up to this story, many people who have seen this movie relate to the characters, and hope to see what happens in the future; movies like this are few and far between, substance and character, not slick Hollywood "trash for cash"; which most people tire of after age 20.

As a fan of the real stuff, a title like the one this movie has attracts a lo. Watching the trailer, one can imagine some things and create illusions when not even knowing what will be seen. Personally, I believe the filmmakers carried with a great responsibility to develop a story with that title; so I went to see if they could do it right. From the beginning the environment is warm, with simple images and a soundtrack that stayed with me long after the film. It was then when I was taken to a restaurant, where all the employees where being informed the same would be sold and that the weeks of work remaining where few. It's a strong scene, considering the messenger being verbally attacked by the employees during the meeting, some questioning an empty future after fifteen years of work. Some will receive the news later on, some won't even find out; because that's how it is. Anyway, it was disappointing that the film based itself on one determined situation with defined characters. I didn't expect that, because I can find it with more complexity in another movie, while in this one the ending confuses its meaning between the pleasant and the awkward. At least the actors try to be some of what the movie wanted to show in their characters "everyday people". They get inside the deep of the ordinary, so we can see an inspired Reg Cathey as a street salesman. In probably the best moment of the film, his characters walks along the street and is bothered by some kids: "Bump", they call him. There he recognizes one of them, and says to him: "How's your mother doing?". The kid, with his friends that just criticized the man's shoes by his side, lowers his head down: "She's OK". Then the man walks away, saying: "Send her my regrets", after the best example the movie gives of the people we see everyday. The rest of the cast, mostly not known or inexperienced actors, do their job correctly in Jim McKay's little world. What I can't understand is, still, the racism towards black people and their fights with white people. The end credits divide in squares of two colors: black and white. I hope there's no subliminal or hidden message in them and I hope HBO continues to do these movies.

Writer/director Jim McKay relies on improvisational techniques to tell this stunning story. It's a microcosm of urban life centred on a Brooklyn 'institution' -- a family restaurant destined for the wrecking ball and gentrification. The restaurant and all the old family-based businesses around it are designated for 'urban renewal,' a term that people in cities all over the world are familiar with these days. The film doesn't preach, but we get some sense that 'renewal' doesn't necessarily translate into 'good'. This film could easily have been called 'Real People' -- such is the authenticity that the director elicits from his many characters. Every actor in this film just 'fits' the role. What emerges is a drama spanning a single day, but it's a drama that bites into the core of the viewer. Such is the power of the portrayals and the pacing of the direction. This film reminded me of British director Mike Leigh, who used to make these deadly accurate 'slice-of-life' dramas largely through improvisation, by having the actors 'inhabit' their characters. McKay has done the same thing here, and he's done it in a deceptively simple way. This film tells real stories of real people confronting real situations: desperation, uncertainty, angst, dreams, sadness, deceit, greed. What is also refreshing about this film is that it doesn't rely on computer graphics to tell its story. Nine out of ten films these days seem to rely on CGI. What a pleasure it is to see a real, live, 'old-fashioned' style film that is, overall, a thing of beauty, a film that is very moving. The sad thing is that it didn't receive wide distribution.

What I enjoyed most about this film is that, like life, things aren't easily wrapped up after 90 minutes. Watch this film if you want to understand that people are human. The characters are realistic, rather than caricatures of humans. The situation(s) are realistic and the complex motivations of individuals sometimes interact in surprising and unsuspecting ways. If people fascinate you, watch this movie for the way the actors inhabit their characters and endow them with redemptive moments even when you don't like them. Some people go to movies to escape their lives--this movie will not be for them. Watch it to better understand the interactions you have all day long.

This is a bare bones film. Plain and simple. It begins with the morning shift at Raskin's restaurant in Brooklyn; and ends when the place shuts down that night. Life goes on over the course of an 18 hour day. Just like the title, the viewer glimpses lives of ordinary folk. Dramatically structured to involve our interest in the passing moments of those lives. They're young and old, black and yellow.brown and white. All of them sympathetically drawn, not good or bad, but in the hands of director Jim McKay, rendered thereafter without judgment. And done so well for me that this little film came to be about real people. Caught in the context of their neighborhood in transition. Most unaware of the changes to come while others are banking on them. For the rich and poor, better or worse? It'd be easy to label Everyday People boring. Speaking personally, it's less about labels than what a viewer brings to the experience. And I say this knowing I can fail to bring the proper suspension of disbelief to another person's work. But after watching Everyday People, I'm reminded of some other good movies, featuring an ensemble of players, involved in a community of interests. The same, but different. There's Ice Cube's on going love affair with Barbershops (I & II are both laugh out loud and touching). And another, likely harder to get, but worth it: Robert Redford's adaptation of the John Nichol's novel, The Milagro Beanfield War.

"Everyday People" is a lukewarm HBO product which takes us into a day in the life of a handful of mostly Afro-Am people who are interconnected by their relationship to a Brooklyn neighborhood restaurant which is about to be bought out by corporate interests in a block-wide urban development project. You'll get to see a waitress wannbe poet argue with her mom about her future and the eatery owner anguishing over his decision to sell out. You'll get to see a street bum lecturing local blacks about their roots and a yuppie corporate type trying to close the deal. While the film tries to conjure the ethnic personality of "Barbershop" with the heart of "Big Night" it manages little more than a monotonous drone of uninspired dialogue which finally tapers off into nothingness with an unsatisfying conclusion. Nothing new here. (C+)