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2011 SLIFF: Day 8

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 17, 2011 - Jeff, Who Lives at Home, Directed by Jay & Mark Duplass U.S. | 83 minutes, 7 p.m. Nov. 18, Tivoli

"Jeff, Who Live At Home" sees "Mumblecore" directors Jay and Mark Duplass continue their development as innovative storytellers and filmmakers. After cult successes with "The Puffy Chair" and "Cyrus," the duo returns to the dynamics of family dysfunction and the search for inner meaning and fulfillment.

Jason Segel stars as Jeff, a stay-at-home slacker whose life philosophy revolves around the film "Signs." He's a down on his luck misanthrope who drifts along, searching for his lot in life.

After getting dispatched by his mother to get wood glue and fix a broken shutter, he journeys into the outside world and decides to let the universe decide his fate. The broken shutter serves as a metaphor for Jeff's evolution and as the catalyst for everything that is about to change Jeff and his family.

In his gut, he knows today is special.

Jeff heading down a path of misadventures littered with the idiotic, sublime, silly and powerful -- leading to a stoner enlightenment filled with purpose and meaning to his life, sort of.

To complicate things, Jeff's family is a mess. His mom, Sharon (Susan Sarandon), desperately wants him to do anything other than hang out in the basement. Her life is plunged into chaos on her birthday after a workplace secret admirer changes her outlook.

Jeff's brother Pat (played with a quiet obliviousness by Ed Helms) is also a wreck. His insensitivity and selfishness makes Pat is a lousy husband with no real clue about how disastrous his marriage has become.

Pat and Jeff stumble into each other in a sort of despondent and hazy serendipity, and they spend a day filled with hilarious and off-kilter events. Little do they know that their adventure will culminate in their respective redemptions.

"Jeff, Who Lives At Home" sees the brothers Duplass evolve as scriptwriters. The story flows well, has great pacing and is performed with a balanced nuance of drama and comedic irony created by an ensemble that is allowed to roam free with the material.

Despite the Mumblecore tag (which uses post-adolescent, contemporary themes, straightforward narrative, emotive comedy and youthful pangs of emptiness and loneliness) this sincere film rises above the derivative fare of 30-somethings looking for the meaning of life being shilled in Hollywood.

(Jay and Mark Duplass are this year's Contemporary Cinema Award winners for the St. Louis International Film Festival. Jay Duplass will be hosting a free seminar on independent filmmaking at 1 p.m. Nov. 19 in Room SV123 of the Sverdrup Business/Technology Complex at Webster University. 

- Reviewed by Rob Levy | Special to the Beacon

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

Directed by Joann Sfar | France
122 minutes
7 p.m. Nov. 18 and 3:30 p.m. Nov. 20, Plaza Frontenac

Serge Gainsbourg never achieved significant success on the American music charts, but he was a full-blown superstar in his native France from the mid 1960s until his death in 1991. He first gained acclaim as a songwriter for female vocalists such as Petula Clark and Juliette Greco, had a highly publicized affair with film legend Brigitte Bardot, and later recorded an erotically explicit single, "Je T'Aime ... Moi Non Plus" with companion Jane Birkin that was banned by the Vatican.

Sfar's biographic film begins with Gainsbourg's childhood as a Jew growing up in the German occupation of Paris, and arcs through his evolution from an aspiring painter to a jazz musician, and eventually to a songwriter and pop music superstar notorious for his unquenchable appetite for women, alcohol and cigarettes (there seems to be a cigarette in actor Eric Elmosnino's mouth in almost every scene in the film - from Gainsbourg's childhood on).

Director Sfar based her film on a graphic novel she wrote about Gainsbourg's life, and there are interestingly surrealistic graphic effects throughout. Physically, Elmonino captures Gainsbourg's disheveled three-day growth of beard look with uncanny accuracy - and does a good job of revealing telling glimpses of the singer/songwriter's emotional complexity.

There's plenty of Gainsbourg's music laced through the film - but unfortunately, we rally get to hear complete versions of any of his songs. For those more familiar with Gainsbourg's music and life, the film hits all the right notes - and captures all the telling moments of his fascinating life. And for those who are not familiar with Gainsbourg's life and music, the film provides an entertaining introduction.

- Reviewed by Terry Perkins | Special to the Beacon

Nov. 18

Tivoli

Shorts 8 Relationships 5 p.m.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home 7 p.m.

Here's the Kicker 7:15 p.m.

Chico and Rita 9:30 p.m.

Doc Shorts 3: Sex & Gender 9:45 p.m.

Plaza Frontenac

The Invisible Eye 1 p.m.

Headhunters 2:15 p.m.

Street Days 3:15 p.m.

The Fairy 4:30 p.m.

Corpo Celeste 6:45 p.m.

Gainsbourg 7 p.m.

Belvedere 9 p.m.

Sacrifice 9:30 p.m.

Washington University

The Little Vampire 6 p.m.

Voltron Force! 7:30 p.m.

Webster

Clash of the Wolves 7 p.m.