The closing-night film of the Deauville American Film Festival on Sept. 8 and slated soon for a theatrical release by Fox Searchlight, The Banger Sisters is an uneven comedy about two old girlfriends -- once legendary groupies -- reuniting in an initially unpleasant fashion when one of them is financially down-and-out and the other is trying to forget their wild pasts. It's got more frank talk about sex than most youth comedies, while its portrayal of a model American family almost disintegrating is some kind of new boomer fantasy/nightmare.
Starring Goldie Hawn -- in one of her best performances -- and Susan Sarandon as the title characters who are not related but teamed up to seduce many of the rock music icons of the 1960s, writer-director Bob Dolman's first feature manages to celebrate middle-aged women and revel in them as fully dimensional and sensual while also making a welcome defense of the era in which they flourished.
Its commercial prospects are subject to the vagaries of critical response, marketing department patience and awards consideration.
Where the film fails to find many contrasts between people and things from then and now beyond the transformation of Sarandon's character into a strict mom, Sisters lets clunky plotting and an uninteresting character creep into a potentially funnier and more endearing scenario. Not to knock the professionalism of Geoffrey Rush, but his performance as a depressed screenwriter who hasn't had sex in 10 years is a mood killer.
Much of the mood of Sisters is orchestrated by Suzette (Hawn), a big-hearted honey who never settled down. Still working on the Sunset Strip at the Whisky a Go Go, where decades before she had as lovers the likes of Jim Morrison and Jimmy Page, Suzette is like an old baseball catcher watching younger players run on and off the field. Her glory days are over, but with a little money, maybe she can hang around and keep watching.
With no advance warning, Suzette drives to Phoenix to borrow money from Lavinia (Sarandon). The two haven't seen each other in 20 years, and each is surprised by how the other has turned out. But first, cashless Suzette takes on a passenger who offers to pay for gas. A fussy eccentric who quickly gets the picture that Suzette is a frank-talking, aggressive female who feels sorry for him, Harry (Rush) has an old manual typewriter and a gun with one bullet.
To his credit, Harry comes around and realizes what a grand time a loveless guy like him can have with Suzette, but the plot machinations needed to keep him in the picture underscore Dolman's overall lack of a strong central theme. Similarly, though individual scenes are hilarious and the performances are more than adequate, the way Suzette crashes into Lavinia's life and causes turmoil is satire reminiscent of American Beauty but with even less cogent results.
When it's Goldie vs. Susan, with the former's character scoring many points early for being upfront and genuine, Sisters has the feel of a classic movie in the making, but Dolman and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub are unable to keep the momentum going. Eventually, in a partly successful scene, Lavinia can't bear it when her teenage daughters, Hannah (Erika Christensen) and Ginger (Eva Amurri), and lawyer husband Raymond (Robin Thomas) laugh at the thought that she was ever rebellious or "less than perfect."
Snapping back to her old ways, Lavinia cuts her hair, borrows some clothes and goes dancing with Suzette. Getting in the groove with the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House," Lavinia proves that Bob Seger was right: "Rock 'n' roll never forgets." Later, she brings out a box of mementos, including an old joint and a fistful of Polaroids. The latter, rock star "cock" shots, are the stuff of a straitlaced clan's meltdown, which almost occurs when the rest of Lavinia's family bursts in on the stoned gals.
Although Raymond is largely silent and unseen, Lavinia's daughters provide an easy entry into the less-than-perfect younger generation. Hannah is on every page of the high school yearbook and pessimistic on the eve of delivering the school's graduation speech. In their somewhat forced introduction at a hotel, Suzette helps her get through a bad acid trip and later checks out the tush of her boyfriend (Matthew Carey) when the youngsters are caught making love in the family pool.
Sarandon's daughter in real life, Amurri in Sisters plays a much shriller sibling than the charmingly upbeat daughter she plays in the upcoming Made-up. Here, she's loud and physical and almost steals the show. As for the big sisters, Sarandon goes through a bigger transformation, but she has less raw charisma than Hawn, who dominates the film. It's impossible not to think of Kate Hudson, Hawn's daughter, in Almost Famous. Only in movies can one cheer a mother for burning up the screen as a sexy woman, showing one way to survive in a tough business.
THE BANGER SISTERS
Fox Searchlight
A Gran Via/Elizabeth Cantillon production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Bob Dolman
Producers: Mark Johnson, Elizabeth Cantillon
Executive producer: David Bushell
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Maia Javan
Editor: Aram Nigoghossian
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Music: Trevor Rabin
Casting: Sheila Jaffe, Georgianne Walken
Cast:
Suzette: Goldie Hawn
Lavinia: Susan Sarandon
Harry: Geoffrey Rush
Hannah: Erika Christensen
Ginger: Eva Amurri
Raymond: Robin Thomas
Jules: Matthew Carey
Running time -- 98 minutes
MPAA rating R...
Starring Goldie Hawn -- in one of her best performances -- and Susan Sarandon as the title characters who are not related but teamed up to seduce many of the rock music icons of the 1960s, writer-director Bob Dolman's first feature manages to celebrate middle-aged women and revel in them as fully dimensional and sensual while also making a welcome defense of the era in which they flourished.
Its commercial prospects are subject to the vagaries of critical response, marketing department patience and awards consideration.
Where the film fails to find many contrasts between people and things from then and now beyond the transformation of Sarandon's character into a strict mom, Sisters lets clunky plotting and an uninteresting character creep into a potentially funnier and more endearing scenario. Not to knock the professionalism of Geoffrey Rush, but his performance as a depressed screenwriter who hasn't had sex in 10 years is a mood killer.
Much of the mood of Sisters is orchestrated by Suzette (Hawn), a big-hearted honey who never settled down. Still working on the Sunset Strip at the Whisky a Go Go, where decades before she had as lovers the likes of Jim Morrison and Jimmy Page, Suzette is like an old baseball catcher watching younger players run on and off the field. Her glory days are over, but with a little money, maybe she can hang around and keep watching.
With no advance warning, Suzette drives to Phoenix to borrow money from Lavinia (Sarandon). The two haven't seen each other in 20 years, and each is surprised by how the other has turned out. But first, cashless Suzette takes on a passenger who offers to pay for gas. A fussy eccentric who quickly gets the picture that Suzette is a frank-talking, aggressive female who feels sorry for him, Harry (Rush) has an old manual typewriter and a gun with one bullet.
To his credit, Harry comes around and realizes what a grand time a loveless guy like him can have with Suzette, but the plot machinations needed to keep him in the picture underscore Dolman's overall lack of a strong central theme. Similarly, though individual scenes are hilarious and the performances are more than adequate, the way Suzette crashes into Lavinia's life and causes turmoil is satire reminiscent of American Beauty but with even less cogent results.
When it's Goldie vs. Susan, with the former's character scoring many points early for being upfront and genuine, Sisters has the feel of a classic movie in the making, but Dolman and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub are unable to keep the momentum going. Eventually, in a partly successful scene, Lavinia can't bear it when her teenage daughters, Hannah (Erika Christensen) and Ginger (Eva Amurri), and lawyer husband Raymond (Robin Thomas) laugh at the thought that she was ever rebellious or "less than perfect."
Snapping back to her old ways, Lavinia cuts her hair, borrows some clothes and goes dancing with Suzette. Getting in the groove with the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House," Lavinia proves that Bob Seger was right: "Rock 'n' roll never forgets." Later, she brings out a box of mementos, including an old joint and a fistful of Polaroids. The latter, rock star "cock" shots, are the stuff of a straitlaced clan's meltdown, which almost occurs when the rest of Lavinia's family bursts in on the stoned gals.
Although Raymond is largely silent and unseen, Lavinia's daughters provide an easy entry into the less-than-perfect younger generation. Hannah is on every page of the high school yearbook and pessimistic on the eve of delivering the school's graduation speech. In their somewhat forced introduction at a hotel, Suzette helps her get through a bad acid trip and later checks out the tush of her boyfriend (Matthew Carey) when the youngsters are caught making love in the family pool.
Sarandon's daughter in real life, Amurri in Sisters plays a much shriller sibling than the charmingly upbeat daughter she plays in the upcoming Made-up. Here, she's loud and physical and almost steals the show. As for the big sisters, Sarandon goes through a bigger transformation, but she has less raw charisma than Hawn, who dominates the film. It's impossible not to think of Kate Hudson, Hawn's daughter, in Almost Famous. Only in movies can one cheer a mother for burning up the screen as a sexy woman, showing one way to survive in a tough business.
THE BANGER SISTERS
Fox Searchlight
A Gran Via/Elizabeth Cantillon production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Bob Dolman
Producers: Mark Johnson, Elizabeth Cantillon
Executive producer: David Bushell
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Maia Javan
Editor: Aram Nigoghossian
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Music: Trevor Rabin
Casting: Sheila Jaffe, Georgianne Walken
Cast:
Suzette: Goldie Hawn
Lavinia: Susan Sarandon
Harry: Geoffrey Rush
Hannah: Erika Christensen
Ginger: Eva Amurri
Raymond: Robin Thomas
Jules: Matthew Carey
Running time -- 98 minutes
MPAA rating R...
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.