031. Staying Together

031. (25 Jan) Staying Together (1989, Lee Granted) 55



This testosterone-fueled family drama runs high with emotion and sentimentality. It's occasionally about as tense and melodramatic as coming of age films get, though its focus on three brothers keeps it from feeling as personal as it should. It's nevertheless a melancholy look at middle-class life with parents who can't communicate and kids who can't control their emotions. Dermot Mulroney shows genuine star power here while Melinda Dillon is absolutely outstanding in a supporting role.

274. An Unexpected Family

274. (16 Nov) An Unexpected Family (1996, Larry Elikann) 35



Stockard Channing is completely credible as an unlucky aunt who has to take care of her niece and nephew, but this is hackish even by teleplay standards. That bad writing invites more than a little camp value. "You're not my mother!" the snotty child actor exclaims. "No, I'm not, because you don't have one," Stockard answers back before slapping him. He retaliates by running into the street and getting hit by a car. Best public service announcement on why not only to never have kids, but why also to never have nieces or nephews.

153. The Baby Dance

153. (14 Aug) The Baby Dance (1999, Jane Anderson) 65



The Baby Dance attacks the class divide in creative, but fairly unsubtle ways. Whenever money enters the conversation, pleasant chatter turns passive aggressive and occasionally escalates further. Laura Dern, as a poor pregnant woman offering her child for adoption, is the standout here. Stockard Channing holds her own against her, at her best delivering a monologue about a miscarriage she had in a public restroom. Jane Anderson has a way of getting to the core of her characters in such moments, writing dialogue that show guarded characters at their most sorrowful or desperate. The last act is almost too bleak to be bearable or believable.