AMERICAN INDEPENDENT COMPETITION - NARRATIVE FEATURES
Sponsored by:

Tuesday, April 1, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM at Regal - Purchase Now

LOVELY BY SURPRISE
USA, 2007, 99 MIN
DIRECTED BY KIRT GUNN
East Coast Premiere
Echoes of the structural innovations in Stranger than Fiction and Adaptation join a melancholy score that includes the synth-pop of The Magnetic Fields in this bittersweet comedy that happens on (at least) three narrative levels at once. There’s the fraught existence of the irresponsible used car salesman and single dad, Bob (Reg Rogers). There’s the angst-ridden daily life of author Marian (Carrie Preston). And then there’s the surreal but strangely resonant parallel world of the novel that she’s trying to complete, in which two brothers live out their absurdist existence on a landlocked boat. Originally a series of short films that were broadcast online as “webisodes” interrelated to another web series, The Neverything, this feature film version successfully delivers a collision of surprising dimensions and incisive clarity about the suppression of trauma and its diversion into the creative process. Rounded out with Kate Burton, Michael Chernus, Dallas Roberts, Austin Pendleton, Richard Masur, and Lena Lamer, this wonderful New York ensemble cast shines!