The Mend
Sep 11 - Sep 17, 2015
(John Magary, 2014, United States, DCP, 111 min)
Seattle Premiere!
A blisteringly funny cavalcade of rage, self-doubt, lust, frustrated masculinity, and other brotherly-hand-me-downs, The Mend is an impressive debut comedy about the frenetic fraternal discord between brothers Mat (Josh Lucas) and Alan (Stephen Plunkett). When his relationship suddenly flames out, an unhinged Mat plunks down on Alan’s couch just as Alan prepares for a carefully planned getaway with his girlfriend (Mickey Sumner). Soon, a despondent Alan returns by his lonesome, and the brothers barrel through a downward spiral of muted madness and harbored aggression. Deliriously battling against electricity outages, broken bathroom doors, bed bug threats, and an annoyingly evasive ice cream truck, the brothers wrestle with each others’ existence and their own demons.
The Mend is a visceral, witty comedy that brings to mind the chaotic exuberance of Withnail & I, rapturously shot by Chris Teague (Obvious Child, Appropriate Behavior) with a nearly constantly moving camera evocative of the classic composition of George Cukor and John Ford.
John Magary’s feature debut is searingly spot-on storytelling, with a memorable, punctuated score by Michi Wiancko & Judd Greenstein.
“My favorite narrative discovery of South by Southwest, unequivocally, was The Mend, which alternates between the restlessness and acutely observed masculine behavior of Cassavetes’ Husbands and the wit and energy of a Cukor comedy.” – Violet Lucca, Film Comment
“John Magary’s acerbic sibling dramedy is like Arnaud Desplechin’s Margaret, a ballsy, sprawling, messy, grueling, go-for-broke experience that doesn’t stop to breathe for 111 furious minutes. Music, slo-mos, zooms, elliptical editing…it’s all here, and it’s always alive.” – Michael Tully, Hammer to Nail
“The Mend is a deliciously bitter minuet, gloriously unstable in its scene construction, shifting points of view and tone.” – Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker Magazine
“Unexpected and explosive... The destructive power of desire is directed with an offbeat and wild joy.” – Jacques Mandelbaum, Le Monde