Getting to Know You

Scrape together a few thousand dollars, call in a few personal favors, enlist your friends and family to work nights and weekends, and the result might be a movie like this: too small and personal for widespread theatrical release, but ideal for any discriminating cable TV network devoted to showcasing true independent cinema.

The film is set (for the most part) in an upstate New York small town bus station, where every glancing encounter has a story behind it. Private narratives of this sort are what define us to ourselves, and because the screenplay was adapted from the writings of Joyce Carol Oates these particular stories describe a series of downbeat, dysfunctional family dramas.

At some point in its evolution the project might have been intended as a stage play, with the wordy, meaningful script and one-act location (opened up by flashbacks and speculative digressions into the overheard lives of passing strangers) suggesting a small theater piece. Sympathetic characters, natural performances, and a welcome lack of hyperbolic direction make it a quietly devastating experience, but with at least a token glimmer of hope in the final scene to help relieve the often oppressive details. Michael Brook's delicate guitar études add just the right touch of atmosphere.

It is obvious that director Lisanne Skyler has tremendous respect for the writings of Joyce Carol Oates. She weaves several stories together in this intriguingly conceived film about lost souls meeting in a bus station. Heather Matarazzo follows up her amazing performance in Welcome To The Doll House with a more measured, but nonetheless brilliant, essay of a displaced teen trying to make sense of what is left from her life.

Zach Braff is phenomenal in the confined role of her brainy and equally depressed brother. Bebe Neuwirth also shines as their mother, Trixie. Only Mark Blum as the father seems badly miscast.

Bo Hopkins does a wonderful supporting turn as a security guard, and Chris Noth and Celia Weston also bring great panache to their supporting characters. Skyler does a masterful job weaving the different stories and diverse characters into her quilt in the first 60% of the film. However, the pacing slows down considerably and her directorial rhythm falters when she focuses solely on the narrative explaining the siblings' predicament which quickly decays into a study of repetition.

However, viewers who persevere will be rewarded. Upon returning to the bus terminal, the characterizations are bestowed dimension in quite skillful and unexpected manners.

this is now one of my favorite films of all time. the way everything played out was amazing. not to mention, the movie kept my interest the entire time. this was, without a doubt, heather matarozzo's best work.

I saw this film at the Gen Art Film Festival in NYC 1999 and looking back over the last year's films think it's one of the year's best. An especially satisfying story with fresh, unconventional performances and brilliant cinematography and scenic design. I was especially struck by the look of the movie.

The blue and green tones throughout the film were haunting.

This is a film drawn from the literature of Joyce Carol Oates, a synthesis of several short stories written into a powerful script which really highlights the talents and abilities of this cast. Well-acted, well-directed, and technically excellent, this film has superior production values in every way.

Heather Matarazzo is brilliantly believable in her role as Judith, an apparently quiet and vulnerable young woman, who we find is strong and resilient once we get to know her better. She, Zach Braff as her brother, Wesley, and Michael Weston as Jimmy, the denizen of the bus station, form the core of this powerful ensemble piece. The characters are played with real personality and a lack of stereotype.

Judith and Wesley are the above-average children of Trix and Darrell, two initially likable, but dysfunctional, parents outstandingly depicted by Bebe Neuwirth and Mark Blum. In its way, this is the antithesis of many "teen" movies, and refreshingly so. Part of the strength of the movie is that nothing is obvious, nothing gift-wrapped, the complex characters never fully explained.

The supporting cast is uniformly excellent, a tribute not only to the actors themselves, but undoubtedly to the fine directing as well.

A brilliant piece of writing, the story is both simple and complex. It is slowly revealed, rather than simply told, and at every point along the way, you are engaged in its unfolding. Vignettes carry the story along, some told from the point of view of Jimmy, the mysterious kid in the bus station, others through the recollections of Wesley and Judith. Slowly, the characters, and we, come to understand their own reality.