A bit of a throwback to the kind of noir-tinged black-comedy-dramas of yore where good people break very bad, this quietly ruthless film sticks to the template but throws in some new-fangled touches. It also draws on the talents of a cracking roster of supporting players, who add a substantial amount of texture and colour to the proceedings, not least among them the film’s own director Alex Winter, best known for playing Bill opposite Keanu Reeves’ Ted. In a peripheral but significant role, Winter plays a sad-sack stoner, the kind of tragic loser Bill might have grown up to be if he and Ted had never encountered George Carlin and his most excellent time machine.
That said, something feels a bit undercooked here, perhaps due to Winter’s direction or Michael MB Galvin’s script, which seems to lack a little torque in the last turns of the screw. The set-up is simple enough, a quite relatable for anyone who has an ageing parent and shiftless siblings. Meg (Kaya Scodelario) has outsourced the care of her widowed mother Judy (Ingunn Omholt) to home-help Grace (Billie Lourd, gloriously trashy) while Meg raises her kids and tries to get her business selling stuff on Facebook up and running. When Judy has a stroke, Meg’s wannabe screenwriter brother Noah (Josh Gad) arrives in town and the two siblings must prepare for their parent’s death and the division of assets.
