Manny & Lo

This is the sweetest film. It's definitely a 'chick thing' with Manny and Lo and Elaine bonding around an infant to be (Lo's). No men are allowed in this paradise. One appears and he gets bopped over the head, gagged and hog-tied. This is a fem-family made on the run. Lo (Aleska Palladino) in her high teens runs away from a foster home with her younger sister, Manny (Scarlett Johansson). It's a Thelma and Louise crime spree made as a movie for children. Well, not quite. Turns out Lo's pregnant. She has been hiding this from 11-year-old Manny, who has the eye of Sherlock Holmes and is the brains of this team. They find a rather nice, used only during the ski season cabin in the woods and hole up to await the stork. They spot Elaine (Mary Kay Place), a lonely spinster working in a baby clothes shop and kidnap her to help deliver the baby. Everybody, despite gruff exteriors, has a heart of gold, and togetherness and loving concern prevail.

And what's wrong with that?

Nothing really. But I was thinking: this is the obverse of male war movies where none or few women appear, men doing their manly thing killing one another, women irrelevant. I think that's the key word here for director Lisa Kruege: in the reproductive game that is war by other means, men are irrelevant. Or almost so. In war it doesn't matter how many men are killed. As long as there are some left the population will quickly spring back. Kill the women, though, and you have a serious population problem. Manny and Lo and Elaine prove that you really don't need the male: his sperm will do, and that way you don't have to put up with his loutish behavior.

I think I got this right. Anyway, it's a cute movie.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

One of Scarlett Johansson's early roles was this indie about a pair of orphaned sisters. Lisa Krueger's "Manny & Lo" is simultaneously intense, funny, disturbing and all-around enjoyable. Johansson and co-stars Aleksa Palladino (who more recently appeared in "The Irishman") and Mary Kay Place make it work every step of the way. Definitely check it out.

I had a hunch that I wanted to revisit this film. On my first watch, I found Manny & Lo to be a moody little film, that weightlessly flew over me. But I think I missed some of its heft, because this subdued drama has more teeth and claws than I remember. Little, fun details are littered throughout the film, a clear display of Krueger's creative vision. Some might criticize the movie for having little entertainment value, but I disagree - you might not be paying attention. Or you might actually not like it, of course.

The premise is uncommon and maybe even odd, but easy to grasp; sisters Amanda and Laurel, more commonly known as Manny & Lo, are in their teens and have run from ther respective foster homes. They live a life on the road, roaming New Jersey, passing the nights in parks, on lawns, in model homes or whatever is most suited and readily available, coming by by stealing from the grocery stores, the older sister, Laurel, performing certain favours for boys in exchange for money, and fueling their station wagon with the use of a hose and other cars; in short, they're little rascals. But Manny is the first to notice something that will be a bump in their careless demeanours, litterally: Lo is pregnant, and she's far beyond the option of abortion. So, what else to do than to break into a huge country mansion, abduct a poor woman who works at a baby shop and keep her hostage there?

The leading trio is just terrific. I think Scarlett Johansson, Aleksa Palladino and Mary Kay Place as Manny, Lo and Elaine (the latter being the abducted "nurse") have a tough job together to keep this character drama afloat. I believe they succeeded. The then eleven-year old Scarlett gets to do the voice-over, and the movie is always from her perspective. But from the first few moments of the movie, when you hear that voice-over musing about made-up people that turn out to be real, I was already checked in. Even back then she had her signature scrappy voice (albeit younger, and less voluminous), and it is used to its fullest extent. Watching her childish expressions is simply delightful. I think she does a finer acting job in this movie than her foul-mouthed counterpart Lo. However, Aleksa still manages to convince the upset with the world; her character is volatile and holds that sense of unpredictability well. Lo might be the older of the two, Manny is certainly a lot more rational. This is proven in many scenes between Manny and Elaine, played wonderfully by Mary Kay Place. She has a strange character to handle, but who is essentially the third wheel that gets them rolling. As Elaine explains, the character has a "cluttered" past, and without ever exactly knowing what that entails Place plays it so that we don't have to know and understand anyway that Elaine has had suffering.

It is all underlined by an amazing soundtrack, quite clearly one of the aspects that flew over unnoticed by me the first time around. Composed by John Lurie, who has provided music for multiple of Jim Jarmusch' features, it is often simple, laid-back, perfect for the accompanying moments, but it also broadens at points, using a wider range of instruments to create a more eclectic sound. I was impressed by how much I loved the soundtrack.

For a comedy, though, there are suprisingly little laughs, which is not necessarily a bad thing because genres should never dictate the contents of a movie alone. But if the dialogue had been more sharply written, it might have gotten more out of me. Still, I laughed a couple of times, and I can't even start to count how many smiles it gave me. Less laughs than there ought to be, and despite its short runtime it is not always aptly paced, but those are little complaints.

To sum it up, I am happily impressed by the love and care that has been put into it. There is lots to read into - morals, parenthood, childhood, it may even contain life lessons for those willing to get that out of it, but I think it works because it never forgets that its essence lays in the three characters and their dynamic together, which is well-done. Not perfect, but a lovely movie anyhow.

very agressive. very endearing. the story of two girls and a whole lot of trouble. these chicks rock. i find myself watching this film over and over again. fresh and unhiply hip. lock combinations and bathroom equations. fun. overall, this is extremely fun.

I saw this film for the first time on TV Ontario last night and it was a beautiful film both visually and emotionally. Lo (Aleska Palladino) and her younger sister, Manny (Scarlett Johansson) run away using a family car. When the film opens, we find them on the fresh, green turf of a new sub-division being chased away by the property owners. Lo is sixteen and pregnant and Manny is an 11-year-old with smarts. They make the rounds of the countryside and small towns and kidnap Elaine (Mary Kay Place), a retail clerk working in a baby boutique. Elaine is made to sign a note that she is on vacation, leaving her owner and co-workers to fend for themselves. This is totally out of character for Elaine, who is a pillar of her community with a heart of gold. As the movie moves along, we see a bond develop between the three female characters with Elaine becoming the mother figure to the free-spirited sisters, who come from a troubled family. The girls learn from Elaine as she fills a void in her own life. Director Lisa Krueger has put together a fine story that moves along slowly but draws the viewer into the characters.