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Reviews
Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (2015)
Stephen Cone Country--if you liked "The Wise Kids"...
I saw "The Wise Kids" a while back and liked it very much, so when I began HGBP, I found myself thinking, "Hmm, reminds me of TWK." No kidding. I think this is a step up in sophistication, though, and with perhaps a harsher look at evangelical subculture, which is apparently Cone's world, like Faulkner's southern county whose name I won't try to spell right now. His metier. Cone likes to describe a whole world in his films. Can't wait for the day he actually gets money to do a BIG picture! By "harsher" I just mean that the damages of a rigid approach to piety are delineated rather sharply and, perhaps, even a bit melodramatically in one scene, though maybe not. I feel like I'd like to see the film again to really understand the family and friend relationships in the film. All in all, I found myself much more involved than I thought I would be. If you want a film that feels like a slice of life, with affection for its characters (except maybe, for the more narrow minded of the Christians in the film, young and old) though maybe not your life, I would recommend this.