Writer/director Angus MacLachlan works through some absorbing questions surrounding the true meaning of family in A Little Prayer, which made its premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The film is a low-profile melodrama that quietly dips into its atmosphere, showing both the strength and the downfall of family.
‘A Little Prayer’ depicts a family diving into crisis L-r: Anna Camp as Patti, David Strathairn as Bill, Billie Roy as Hadley, Celia Weston as Venida, and Jane Levy as Tammy | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
David’s (Will Pullen) parents, Bill (David Strathairn) and Venida (Celia Weston), allow him and his wife, Tammy (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist‘s Jane Levy), to move into their quiet home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. David and Bill have always been rather close, but they become even more involved in each other’s lives after they start working together. Bill gets a sneaking suspicion that his...
‘A Little Prayer’ depicts a family diving into crisis L-r: Anna Camp as Patti, David Strathairn as Bill, Billie Roy as Hadley, Celia Weston as Venida, and Jane Levy as Tammy | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
David’s (Will Pullen) parents, Bill (David Strathairn) and Venida (Celia Weston), allow him and his wife, Tammy (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist‘s Jane Levy), to move into their quiet home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. David and Bill have always been rather close, but they become even more involved in each other’s lives after they start working together. Bill gets a sneaking suspicion that his...
- 1/31/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
In the quiet, peaceful mornings that ease your way into writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer, a woman belts out gospel songs that echo down the block. They’re a bleary-eyed nuisance to many waking in this small, North Carolina neighborhood, but Bill Brass (David Straitharn) and his daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy) have a mutual fascination with them, rising early with curiosity and wonder. Why does she sing them? Where do they come from exactly? The pair eventually attempt to investigate their leafy streets to find the source, yet as the spirituals dissipate and leave them alone in bird-chirping silence, they seem to revel in their beautiful, unsolved mystery.
Their unusual bond carries the movie’s spirit like a warm breeze, a comforting and centering presence as Bill, a Vietnam veteran, navigates his family’s dysfunction and reckons with his parenting past. Like Junebug, MacLachlan’s feature writing debut...
Their unusual bond carries the movie’s spirit like a warm breeze, a comforting and centering presence as Bill, a Vietnam veteran, navigates his family’s dysfunction and reckons with his parenting past. Like Junebug, MacLachlan’s feature writing debut...
- 1/31/2023
- by Jake Kring-Schreifels
- The Film Stage
Anna Camp, David Strathairn, Billie Roy, Celia Weston and Jane Levy in ‘A Little Prayer’ (Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute / Photo by Diana Greene)
How does it feel to be seen when you’ve spent your entire life feeling invisible? That question is posed and answered in the moving family drama A Little Prayer.
The very definition of a slow burn, writer/director Angus MacLachlan takes his time and slowly introduces the dysfunctional family at the center of the story. David Strathairn and Celia Weston play the family patriarch and matriarch, a couple who’ve been married for decades and who’ve come to accept what can’t be changed in their relationship. Bill and Venida should be at the empty-nester stage heading into pre-retirement, yet their brood has failed to fly.
David (Will Pullen) works for his dad’s company and lives behind his childhood home with his wife,...
How does it feel to be seen when you’ve spent your entire life feeling invisible? That question is posed and answered in the moving family drama A Little Prayer.
The very definition of a slow burn, writer/director Angus MacLachlan takes his time and slowly introduces the dysfunctional family at the center of the story. David Strathairn and Celia Weston play the family patriarch and matriarch, a couple who’ve been married for decades and who’ve come to accept what can’t be changed in their relationship. Bill and Venida should be at the empty-nester stage heading into pre-retirement, yet their brood has failed to fly.
David (Will Pullen) works for his dad’s company and lives behind his childhood home with his wife,...
- 1/30/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
If you love “Junebug,” the 2005 indie that launched Amy Adams’ career, then you probably felt at the time as film critic Jan Stuart did. He’s quoted on the poster as saying, “It is only a matter of time before [director] Phil Morrison achieves the status of Jim Jarmusch, Gus Van Sant, and Woody Allen.” Well, that prediction never really came to pass. Morrison made one more feature, then turned his attention to commercials. Meanwhile, the film’s screenwriter, Angus MacLachlan, has slowly but surely emerged as an auteur of authentic stories representing the American South.
MacLachlan’s third film as director (and the first to be selected for Sundance featuring him in that role), “A Little Prayer” shares much of the sensibility — and sensitivity — that made “Junebug” so special. Once again, he’s written a modestly scaled but deep-reaching relationship drama about a white middle-class North Carolina family that believes in God,...
MacLachlan’s third film as director (and the first to be selected for Sundance featuring him in that role), “A Little Prayer” shares much of the sensibility — and sensitivity — that made “Junebug” so special. Once again, he’s written a modestly scaled but deep-reaching relationship drama about a white middle-class North Carolina family that believes in God,...
- 1/26/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
As A Little Prayer begins, the voice of an unseen singer floats into the still morning air of a strikingly leafy neighborhood. The spirituals she belts, heard a few times during this quiet drama, take on the role of a disembodied character, sparking responses from the other characters that help to define who they are. Some hear only noise, an intrusion, something to complain about. But for Bill and his daughter-in-law, Tammy, searching souls beautifully played by David Strathairn and Jane Levy, the songs are enchanting, a mystery to savor.
Bill and Tammy are, as she puts it, kindred spirits, but that’s not to say they’re fully in sync. Their bond is the heart of writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s understated film, yet so too is the gap between what Bill wants to believe and the way things are. At the helm of his third feature, after Goodbye to All That...
Bill and Tammy are, as she puts it, kindred spirits, but that’s not to say they’re fully in sync. Their bond is the heart of writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s understated film, yet so too is the gap between what Bill wants to believe and the way things are. At the helm of his third feature, after Goodbye to All That...
- 1/24/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Angus MacLachlan wrote 2005’s terrific indie Junebug, which put Amy Adams on the big-time map and earned her a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination in a heartbreaking performance. It also put MacLachlan on the map with his first screenplay, and it was an auspicious start. Since then he has added directing to his credits including Goodbye to All and Abundant Acreage Available but tonight returned to the Sundance Film Festival with his latest, A Little Prayer, shot and set in his hometown of Winston-Salem, Nc.
Perhaps the kind of small indie that defines the term “Sundance movie,” A Little Prayer is largely a showcase for an exceptionally talented cast who make up the troubled family in this tale. It drifts into some soapy territory before it is over but is rescued by some fine acting, even if at times it feels more like a TV production than a gritty independent film,...
Perhaps the kind of small indie that defines the term “Sundance movie,” A Little Prayer is largely a showcase for an exceptionally talented cast who make up the troubled family in this tale. It drifts into some soapy territory before it is over but is rescued by some fine acting, even if at times it feels more like a TV production than a gritty independent film,...
- 1/24/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
You have to suspend a hefty amount of disbelief in order to enjoy the kiddy horror pic “Spirit Halloween: The Movie” since, yes, it is a feature-length commercial for the Spirit Halloween chainstore. This lightly likable action-adventure advert rehashes the formulaic story beats that its filmmakers cribbed from a variety of acknowledged influences, including Amblin productions like “Gremlins” and “The Goonies.”
You might also think of Robert Zemeckis’s two Amblin movies, “Back to the Future” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” given the presence of Christopher Lloyd, who makes a brief appearance as a vengeful ghost who hopes to possess a new human body. (Lloyd otherwise delivers his lines off-camera as a voice actor.)
Unfortunately, screenwriter Billie Bates and first-time director David Poag don’t have a knack for snappy dialogue or a general sensitivity for child and/or amateurish acting, which inadvertently puts way too much strain on the movie’s younger performers.
You might also think of Robert Zemeckis’s two Amblin movies, “Back to the Future” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” given the presence of Christopher Lloyd, who makes a brief appearance as a vengeful ghost who hopes to possess a new human body. (Lloyd otherwise delivers his lines off-camera as a voice actor.)
Unfortunately, screenwriter Billie Bates and first-time director David Poag don’t have a knack for snappy dialogue or a general sensitivity for child and/or amateurish acting, which inadvertently puts way too much strain on the movie’s younger performers.
- 9/28/2022
- by Simon Abrams
- The Wrap
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