Grief (film)

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Grief
Directed byRichard Glatzer
Written byRichard Glatzer
Produced byRuth Charny
Yoram Mandel
StarringCraig Chester
Jackie Beat
Lucy Gutteridge
Illeana Douglas
CinematographyDavid Dechant
Edited byRobin Katz
William W. Williams
Music byTom Judson
Production
company
Grief Productions
Distributed byStrand Releasing
Release date
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Grief is an American comedy film, directed by

Prozac-addicted colleague Paula (Lucy Gutteridge).[2]

The cast also includes Illeana Douglas, Alexis Arquette, Carlton Wilborn, Mickey Cottrell and Paul Bartel.

Production

The film was inspired in part by Glatzer's own experience working on Divorce Court, during which his own partner Donald died.[3] At a retrospective screening at Outfest in 2015, just a few weeks before Glatzer's death, he stated that he had not wanted to make a sorrowful film about the horrors of AIDS, but wanted to juxtapose Mark's grief with the humour and absurdity of life going on.[4]

It was the only film Glatzer made on his own before meeting Wash Westmoreland, who would become both his husband and his creative partner on all of his future films.[3]

Release

The film premiered at San Francisco's

Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.[5]

Critical response

Kevin Thomas of

The Los Angeles Times praised the film's endearing mixture of comedy and poignancy, writing that Glatzer "brings a sure sense of structure and makes the most of an opportunity to display a gift for sharp, witty dialogue. “Grief" takes place virtually entirely within "The Love Judge" offices, yet it is always cinematic, never stagy. Whenever "Grief" threatens to get too emotional, Glatzer deftly cuts to glimpses of outrageous "Love Judge" episodes, which feature cameos by Mickey Cottrell (as the judge), Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel and performance artists Johanna Went and John Fleck. The stories the writers concoct border on the delirious as do their inevitable mutations—Jeremy has come up with a story idea about a leper only to find him turned into a diabetic amputee."[1]

Marjorie Baumgarten of the

Austin Chronicle wrote that the film is "something like what Soapdish might have been if John Waters had scripted the movie." She concluded that "Occasionally, the movie's momentum gets waylaid by some dead-end campiness that goes nowhere but, for the most part, the dialogue and situations are sharp and funny. The milieu of the production office is exactly right with its always broken-down copier, tight quarters, chaotic-seeming sheaves of paper, inexplicable doodads everywhere, and mostly, its office camaraderie that supersedes the office politics. Permit it a few indulgences, and you, too, will find yourself stricken with Grief."[2]

For

The Advocate, Lawrence Frascella wrote that "while there is some bad, bad melodrama to muddle through, Glatzer and his ensemble make believable the movie’s last-minute surge of office camaraderie. They even manage to generate genuine poignancy along the way. Grief is not a particularly challenging or groundbreaking film. But it is very funny, heartwarming entertainment with an uncompromising gay bent: Imagine The Mary Tyler Moore Show in an alternative universe."[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Kevin Thomas, "MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Grief’ an Endearing Mix of Humor, Poignancy". Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1994.
  2. ^
    Austin Chronicle
    , June 3, 1994.
  3. ^
    Filmmaker Magazine
    , March 13, 2015.
  4. ^ Stephen Saito, "Richard Glatzer and His Cast on the Good Done By “Grief” 20 Years Later". The Movable Fest, February 3, 2015.
  5. ^ Dennis Harvey, "Good ‘Grief’ nabs prize at Lesbian-Gay Fest". Variety, July 1, 1993.
  6. The Advocate
    , March 22, 1994.

External links

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