Afternoon Delight

Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) is a smart but bored housewife. She has trouble connecting with her son Logan and has stopped having sex with her husband Jeff (Josh Radnor). Following her friend Stephanie (Jessica St. Clair), she takes her husband to a strip club. Jeff buys her a session in the backroom with stripper McKenna (Juno Temple). Later she tracks down McKenna and befriends her. She takes McKenna in when she runs into problems. Then she finds out that McKenna is a prostitute also. Dr. Lenore (Jane Lynch) is her unhelpful psychiatrist. Jennie (Michaela Watkins) is the bossy school mom.

There are a lot of smart funny women in this. Jill Soloway is mostly a TV writer/producer and she has written some pretty smart stuff. She doesn't really have a directorial style. Kathryn Hahn brings a naturally smart lovely vibe. There is a general oddness with the tone. It's light and cute for the first half. It's even wacky and unreal. Then it tries to go to a darker place which it hasn't earn the right to. It definitely doesn't have the realism to be believable. About an hour into the movie, it takes the turn and it feels unreal. It's almost a different movie. Having so many female comedians may actually hurt this. For example, having Jane Lynch just throws the tone to a different place.

Making a film is hard, no one disputes that, and I have respect for the filmmaker for making this film. But if this is the best direction of American independent film of 2013 then the answer is simple, cinema is dead. The fact that this film has played almost nowhere in Europe (festival wise) shows the impact it has internationally and the limited view that somewhere like Sundance can have on the current state of cinema. I don't have any ill will towards Ms. Solowayl or her film, but cinema should be there to enlighten, excite, experiment, not play into clichés and formulas (in this case, the indie that really wants to be the next multiplex family train wreck). This film isn't terrible, it's just average, another movie, with some "names," used as a calling card to go on and help Ms. Soloway make more mediocre work. And as the protagonist says in the TV SET, "make the world more mediocre." Hopefully, before her next attempt, she'll actually watch some films (and learn about cinema), think about what she wants to say and try and do something as an artist that is, even mildly, important. And of course "important" is relative, but if this was the last film she could make, would this be the story she would want to tell? Really? If the answer is yes, then not only is cinema dead, but culture as well. In the days of TED talks, Starbucks alternative mix CDs, etc.. this fits in just fine. Something you think is radical, but when you really look at it critically, it's just more suburban POV, that has nothing more to say than, "our life is boring." We know that already. I give her a five, if nothing more, for effort.

"If you think I can help you I promise you're not taking." Rachel (Hahn) is a stay-at-home mom who is bored with her life. In between her trips to her psychiatrist and helping with her son's preschool fund-raisers she is dealing with a non-existent sex life with her husband and repetitive routines everywhere else. One night, trying to spice things up, her and her husband go to a strip club where she meets McKenna (Temple) who she sees as a project and sets out to change her. This is a perfect example of a movie that is not done justice by its trailer. If you watch it you will expect a raunchy sex comedy. What this is a very personal and sometimes depressing movie about how a women goes to drastic measures to change her life. Kathryn Hahn is one of the funniest women actors today but this really shows that she is more then just a comedic force. The movie does have some funny moments in this but do not expect a laugh out loud comedy. This is a true dark dramedy about what a woman will do when she feels trapped. Overall, this is the definition of the saying "be careful what you wish for." A real surprise that I really liked and recommend. I give this an A-.

If I had a dollar for every time an independent film opened with a man or woman looking lost, listless, and disheveled, I think I'd have about a day's pay. This time, however, the disheveled soul is Rachel (Kathryn Hahn), a stay-at-home mother who is falling into a midlife crisis a bit too early it would appear. Her marriage with her husband Jeff (Josh Radnor) has gone sexless, her child's school events fail to drum up anything besides faux-excitement, and her purpose in life seems to be nothing of any particular significance. Out of the blue, and because of a recommendation from a close friend, she plans a date- night with her husband at a local area strip club to hopefully spice up their sexlife in the bedroom.

Instead of inspiring sexual energy, Rachel finds herself inspired by McKenna (Juno Temple), a beautiful blonde stripper who claims she's nineteen and has found the ins and outs of the exotic dancing world at a young age. Rachel, taken by McKenna's positivity given her situation, which can often be viewed as degrading, and her mature behavior, hires her as a live-in nanny, however, effectively creating tension between Jeff and her family.

Hahn is terrific here as a woman who is in a part of her life that is not only difficult to go through but difficult to portray accurately. The character of Rachel doesn't seem to know what she wants, and because of that, Hahn already has the difficultly of trying to make a character like that not only sympathetic but accessible to the audience. For what she does, Hahn succeeds almost through-and- through, portraying a character who isn't always likable, isn't always friendly, but is consistently human and easy to identify with in the regard that she makes mistakes, sometimes socially-lethal ones, like we all do, and for that we can admire her in her relatability.

While Hahn takes centerstage here, Juno Temple as an actress here and in other films. Temple has frequently kept herself in the role of a working class woman who is trying to do right but finds ways to get herself in situations that pull her in different directions. Her previous films - like Dirty Girl, which beautifully demonstrated her potential as a lead, Killer Joe, and Little Birds - all had those qualities in some particular way, whereas here, she finds ways to be more comfortable with her life choices and not filled with regret or uncertainty. This subtle difference already makes Temple's performance a bit more different than her previous, but the typical lower-income status- quo her character belongs to still echoes the past quite loudly.

It is a shame, however, that with Hahn and Temple assuming the frontlines of the show here that Josh Radnor, a very talented writer/director/actor, is kind of neglected in terms of character and focus here. His only shining-moment is a predictable outburst that occurs late in the film and even that would've worked better if he had more character to him than the neglected husband role who, oh yeah, has feelings.

Furthermore, it's also sad that first time writer/director Jill Soloway decides to have the third act conflict revolve around Rachel in a drunken-haze, spewing "honesty" at all her girlfriends. Such cartoonishness doesn't belong in this picture, and unlike in a film like August: Osage County with wit and unpredictability, Afternoon Delight explores them with triviality and constant predictability.

With that, Afternoon Delight is kind of a jumble, but the pros outweigh the cons just enough that where a mild but present recommendation can be awarded. Not only do Hahn and Temple demonstrate great leading performances, but Soloway bravely shows her captivation with human interest stories. She'd likely be great participating in the mumblecore "movement," something that needs new people to handle some of the attributes of the long-running subgenre.

Starring: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, and Josh Radnor. Directed by: Jill Soloway.

A charming, touching indie dramedy. I watched it mainly because I really like comedian Kathryn Hahn. I've loved her presence as a character actress since she popped up in Step Brothers a few years back, and she's stolen scenes in movies such as Wanderlust and TV shows such as Parks & Recreation since then. I'd heard it was a bad film, but I thought it was pretty good. Hahn stars as a wife and mother. Her marriage (to Josh Radnor) isn't bad, necessarily, but their sex life has kind of died. One night, on a whim, she decides to have a couples date with her best friend at a strip club (her friend swears that it gets her husband's motor running). There she meets a young stripper played by Juno Temple, and she becomes a little obsessed with the girl afterward. Not sexually, exactly, though there may be an element of that. It's kind of a motherly attention, mixed with a deep curiosity regarding the girl's highly sexual lifestyle. When she finds the girl outside of work, she's basically homeless, so Hahn takes her home, hoping to maybe glean some of her secrets. There isn't much of a plot. It's mostly just a film about people. It really gives Hahn, who is in general a supporting player, a chance to shine, and, man, does she ever. This is a fantastic performance. Temple is quite good, too. The men in the picture are a little underdeveloped. If Radnor had been more of a character, the film might have been great. As it is, it's pretty good.