Pieces of April - Offbeat and Touching
 

The independent film is alive and well and living in NYC. Shot on a Sony PD150, with what the director calls a small budget, this is a very appealing and diverse movie. Especially if you have ever lived in an apartment building. In NY of all places. The neighbors are all weird or different. Everybody has a personality. Katie Holmes invites her family for a Thanksgiving dinner. But her oven is on the blink and she has to locate a working oven, in her neighbors' apartments. Here comes the musical turkey in a roasting pan. There are so many interesting characters in the movie that you could fill an entire page writing about them. The vegan and the yuppie with a toupee are hilarious. If you thought you lived in a dysfunctional family, surprise- your family is perfectly normal compared to Katie's.

What I find amazing about the film is how dedicated the director (Peter Hedges) was in getting it made. He wrote the screenplay too. The picture is dedicated to his mother, who died of cancer. It was a movie he had to get made, a story that could not be denied. If you ever needed motivation for getting your own movie made, listen to the director's commentary on this one. You will be inspired. Hopefully, you can round up your own crew when the time comes. You gotta believe.

Technically, there was video blowout when they came out of the Holland Tunnel. But this is not a movie you judge by its video quality or merits. It's the story, darn it. Watching this, I don't feel so bad about my own footage.

i've heard good things about it. the marketing budget was even smaller from what I hear, so word of mouth is keeping it alive.