THE RIGHT CALL
‘Landline’ rings true on relationships, ’90s nostalgia
A sitcom-ish, New York City-set family memoir set in 1995, “Landline” is a rare, semi-autobiographical portrait
of sisters facing family and personal crises with spunk, intelligence and humor, featuring believable siblings (they even look alike).
Directed and co-written by Brooklyn-born Gillian Robespierre, the film tells the story of upper-middleclass New York sisters Dana (Milton's Jenny Slate, whose breakout film “Obvious Child” was directed and co-written by Robespierre) and Ali (the talented Abby Quinn). Dana is a late-20-something layout artist who has recently moved in with fiance Ben (Jay Duplass). The two seem happy, but their sex life is dull to her, and Dana runs into old flame Nate (Lenox's Finn Wittrock).
High school senior Ali is a club kid a decade younger than Dana. Ali faces going off to college soon, making her sexual but only semi-serious relationship with Jed (Marquis Rodriguez) problematic. Making matters more complicated, Ali discovers a computer file made by her and Dana's advertising man and aspiring playwright father, Alan (John Turturro), which contains love poems written to a woman referred to only by the initial C. The trouble is Alan's wife's name is Pat (Edie Falco), and Pat resents being made to be the sole caretaker of her daughters and the one made to be the “bad cop” when the girls mess up.
The ensuing complications may not exactly surprise and may in fact be ordinary, and Duplass may not be a particularly sympathetic cuckold. But this cast is so good that “Landline,” which is named for the almost obsolete phone everyone in the film still uses, holds your attention.
Slate, who has the voice of a cartoon character and has done a ton of work in animated films, is ditsy, charming and sexy as the young woman bewitched, bothered and bewildered by the handsome and sexually adventuresome Nate. Dana is so enamored she uses Ali's conflicts with her parents as an excuse to move back in with them and figure out what to do, while she fools around with Nate.
The film begins with Dana and Ben trying to have sex in the woods on Labor Day weekend and Ali later making a funny-raunchy reference to a k.d. lang concert while sitting beside Ben and Dana, heading back to the city with their parents in the back of the family's well-preserved Volvo.
Robespierre, once again co-writing with producer Elisabeth Holm, has made another fine effort. For anyone jonesing for the presidency of Bill Clinton, “Landline” has Pat commenting on the color of Hillary's 1995-era pantsuit and then wearing a similar one to a business meeting. A combed-over Rudy Giuliani is mayor of New York City. Dana runs into Nate while listening to world music wearing earphones in a record shop (remember those?).
I wasn't too keen about an eyebrow piercing as a metaphor for cheating. But the cast holds your interest (Falco knows a lot about families with secrets), and “Landline” is funny and insightful. Plus, here's your chance to make a Lorena Bobbitt joke, eat at Benihana and hear people talk about “Mad About You” again.