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June 1, 2015
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Opening Night at the Brooklyn Film Festival Watching “Manson Family Vacation” (a report and a review)
— Posted by
Jules Neuman
The Movie Blog was invited to the opening night of the Brooklyn Film Festival ( the week-long event is being held at the Wythe Hotel in, obviously, Brooklyn, NY, with the closing ceremony and awards taking place on Sunday, June 7th). Before the film (Manson Family Vacation got the opening night screening, directed by first-time feature filmmaker J. Davis, starring Jay Duplass and Linas Phillips, which I cover later in this piece), I was invited to partake in a fun little cocktail hour! Here are some of my observations of the opening reception of the festival:
Thank to you the Brooklyn Film Festival and the Wythe Hotel. And please get tickets ASAP. The festival goes on all this week (June 1-7). The film, Manson Family Vacations, is the first feature directed by J. Davis, Jay Duplass and Linas Phillips play brothers who love each other at arm’s length. Nick (Duplass) is a successful family man. Conrad (Phillips), Nick’s older, fuck-up of a brother, is on the way to a new job, but first wants to have a day of fun with Nick. But Conrad’s “day of fun” includes stopping at the sites of the horrific murders committed by the Manson Family in the 1970s. Conrad is a Manson Family follower, and Nick, absolutely not a Manson Family follower, begrudgingly agrees to go along.
Manson Family Vacation is a sappy bro-comedy with a bro-‘oad trip tacked on. Nick and Conrad drive through Southern California on their way to Death Valley, looking for Manson touchstones like the Tate and La Bianca houses, and trying to find a mysterious man named “Black Bird” who has promised Conrad a mysterious job. Along the way they tackle such family issues as Conrad’s adoption, their father’s hard ass, no-showing a funeral and the inherent insensitivity in idolizing Charles Manson. Shown strategically throughout are short clips of Manson being interviewed and saying weird shit that is both profound and profoundly sad.
It doesn’t stop there. We hear the music Manson made (which is pretty good), see the inside pages of “Helter Skelter,” and get a general idea that Charlie Manson really isn’t all that bad. And while the last part is totally unintentional, it is something you could take away from the film. Manson Family Vacation is possibly about something much deeper and crazier (like what it might be like being Charles Manson’s offspring), but this is lazily circled around.
Yet this is what makes Manson Family Vacation such a treat. Though at times rushed, and with dialogue that toggles between genuine and labored (too much of it serving as exposition and backstory), that Charles Manson is the film’s heart complicates every moment, forcing us to consider things the average insular family dramedy. There’s a great twist at the climax, a nice report between its leads (Duplass and Phillips feel like they actually are related, both in the script and real life), and then there’s the fun and timelessness of the road trip in a movie. Shout out to Tobin Bell, Lenora Pitts, Suzanne Ford, Ray Laska, little Adam Chernick (for looking the most like a future serial killer), and, of course, to Charles Manson. I suppose without him, there’d be no Manson Family Vacation. It’s no silver lining, mind you, but food for thought.
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who has written 20 posts on The Movie Blog Jules has been living in New York City for a decade, is a cinephile and a writer taking his first steps in film criticism. He attended The Ross School (for high school), New School University (creative writing/lit major), lives in Brooklyn and co-hosts a podcast (Gooble Gobble--available on iTunes this Summer...visit www.gobblepod.com for more) about the esoteric films hiding in streaming catalogues like Netflix. Jules believes films should work for him, as he works for them, championing the medium's importance and impact while always demanding each new movie upholds the medium's reputation. Though most movies are a "5" in his book (half bad, half good), the ones that rise above are surely worthy, as are the ones that dip below. visit author's website | Contact the Author Around the Web
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