{"id":4863,"date":"2015-09-28T06:23:15","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T10:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4863"},"modified":"2015-10-19T08:47:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T12:47:26","slug":"grandma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4863","title":{"rendered":"Grandma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-4864\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/landscape_1439933880_elle_august_2015_intel_tiger_.jpg?resize=375%2C239\" alt=\"Lily Tomlin, Grandma\" width=\"375\" height=\"239\" \/>Wait for cable. This Paul Weitz film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XspFo3jiVR8\">(trailer)<\/a> has had some mixed, but mostly positive reviews, and we gave it a chance based on the cast line-up: Lily Tomlin, Marcia Gay Harden, Sam Elliott.<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, the best, most persuasive performance comes from pale-as-paper Julia Garner, who plays Tomlin\u2019s 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage. Her role mostly requires looking on in dismay as the \u201cgrown-ups\u201d whom she hopes will help her rant viciously at each other and dredge up decades-old animosities. By staying out of it, she is revealed as Sage the wise, not Sage the turkey-and-dressing ingredient.<\/p>\n<p>People vary sharply in what they find funny. Alas, I don\u2019t find a firehose delivery of insults and putdowns more than boring. Tomlin\u2019s character, poet Elle Reid, is unnaturally prickly and, faced with the pregnancy of her high school student granddaughter, she\u2019s not even sympathetic\u2014or discreet. \u201cShe\u2019s already pregnant,\u201d she announces to a young man who glances Sage\u2019s way.<\/p>\n<p>The movie\u2019s plot revolves around Elle and Sage\u2019s attemps to scare up $600 for an abortion, scheduled for 5:30 pm the day the movie takes place. This is not a gleeful situation, either. (The old Dodge was pretty cool, though.)<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a fan of Tomlin\u2019s acting, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/goingoutguide\/movies\/lily-tomlin-is-brilliant-as-the-acerbic-title-character-in-grandma\/2015\/08\/26\/a4907404-4a76-11e5-8ab4-c73967a143d3_story.html\">laudatory reviews to the contrary<\/a>, she doesn\u2019t seem really engaged with this highly predictable material. The ill-conceived (you should pardon the expression) and flimsy device of the appointment deadline puts manic urgency into the pair\u2019s approaches to a succession of unlikely loan prospects. Tomlin\u2019s interaction with the loser boyfriend is unbelievable in every particular, and nothing written for Tomlin\u2019s character suggests she has a poetic bone in her body or the necessary mental discipline and insight for that craft.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/grandma_2015\/\">Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating: 93%; audiences: 72%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wait for cable. This Paul Weitz film (trailer) has had some mixed, but mostly positive reviews, and we gave it a chance based on the cast line-up: Lily Tomlin, Marcia Gay Harden, Sam Elliott. As it turns out, the best, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4863\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[272,57,104],"tags":[162],"class_list":["post-4863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","category-movies","category-the-morgue","tag-movie"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2NkiT-grandma","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4865,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4863\/revisions\/4865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}