Afternoon Delight

Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) is a smart but bored housewife. She has trouble connecting with her son Logan and has stopped having sex with her husband Jeff (Josh Radnor). Following her friend Stephanie (Jessica St. Clair), she takes her husband to a strip club. Jeff buys her a session in the backroom with stripper McKenna (Juno Temple). Later she tracks down McKenna and befriends her. She takes McKenna in when she runs into problems. Then she finds out that McKenna is a prostitute also. Dr. Lenore (Jane Lynch) is her unhelpful psychiatrist. Jennie (Michaela Watkins) is the bossy school mom.

There are a lot of smart funny women in this. Jill Soloway is mostly a TV writer/producer and she has written some pretty smart stuff. She doesn't really have a directorial style. Kathryn Hahn brings a naturally smart lovely vibe. There is a general oddness with the tone. It's light and cute for the first half. It's even wacky and unreal. Then it tries to go to a darker place which it hasn't earn the right to. It definitely doesn't have the realism to be believable. About an hour into the movie, it takes the turn and it feels unreal. It's almost a different movie. Having so many female comedians may actually hurt this. For example, having Jane Lynch just throws the tone to a different place.

I found this title on a streaming service and, don't judge me, but I have to admit I was attracted initially by the title and low IMDb rating which promised something a bit cheap and steamy. When I saw however that it starred Katherine Hahn and was written and directed by Jill Soloway I realised it must actually be a pretty good film, and any steam would be a bonus. Soloway was one of the people behind the legendary Six Feet Under as well as Transparent (which incidentally I found patchier but still largely excellent) and this film won't disappoint viewers who loved the realistic dialogue and natural acting of those series. Familiar Soloway territory is explored, namely middle-class people wrangling with issues of sexuality, identity and class in Los Angeles. Hahn plays (superbly, with highly-strung aplomb) Rachel, a married woman having a mid-life crisis. Her nerdy husband buys her a lap dance at a club, which seems to ignite something in her, and later, while buying coffee downtown, she runs into the dancer, McKenna, played by a young and sexy Juno Temple. Rachel befriends McKenna, perhaps thinking some of her laid-back sexiness will rub off on her, and when McKenna gets thrown out of her home, Rachel invites her to stay temporarily in the family home. It turns out McKenna isn't exactly just a dancer and Rachel decides to spice up her non-existent sex life by accompanying her on a home visit to one of McKenna's regular clients. At this point however Rachel's true character comes to the fore as she decides she no longer wants anything to do with McKenna, who in turn also reverts to type during a boys' evening with Rachel's husband and his pals. Ultimately Rachel turns out to be a pretty awful, spoilt middle-class person who doesn't know what she wants and doesn't have a great deal of respect for the working class, so that by the end I was annoyed, not by the film but by her character (though clearly that was the intention). The film is definitely worth more than its current 5.2 IMDb rating (I've seen far more pretentious and tedious films get inexplicably higher scores on here) and also definitely worth investigating - and there is indeed some steam too, if that's what you're looking for.

Making a film is hard, no one disputes that, and I have respect for the filmmaker for making this film. But if this is the best direction of American independent film of 2013 then the answer is simple, cinema is dead. The fact that this film has played almost nowhere in Europe (festival wise) shows the impact it has internationally and the limited view that somewhere like Sundance can have on the current state of cinema. I don't have any ill will towards Ms. Solowayl or her film, but cinema should be there to enlighten, excite, experiment, not play into clichés and formulas (in this case, the indie that really wants to be the next multiplex family train wreck). This film isn't terrible, it's just average, another movie, with some "names," used as a calling card to go on and help Ms. Soloway make more mediocre work. And as the protagonist says in the TV SET, "make the world more mediocre." Hopefully, before her next attempt, she'll actually watch some films (and learn about cinema), think about what she wants to say and try and do something as an artist that is, even mildly, important. And of course "important" is relative, but if this was the last film she could make, would this be the story she would want to tell? Really? If the answer is yes, then not only is cinema dead, but culture as well. In the days of TED talks, Starbucks alternative mix CDs, etc.. this fits in just fine. Something you think is radical, but when you really look at it critically, it's just more suburban POV, that has nothing more to say than, "our life is boring." We know that already. I give her a five, if nothing more, for effort.

RELEASED IN 2013 and written & directed by Jill Soloway, "Afternoon Delight" chronicles events when a bored stay-at-home mom in Los Angeles (Kathryn Hahn) becomes intrigued by a beautiful 'sex worker' (Juno Temple) at a strip club. Surprisingly, she brings her home to live in the extra room and even enlists her as a nanny, which has repercussions. Josh Radnor plays the husband and Jane Lynch the wife's therapist.

This contains some hard R-rated sex-oriented scenes so I encourage you to pass if you find that unsavory. To be honest, I was only interested in "Afternoon Delight" because of the winsome, stunning Juno. This isn't a quirky comedy, but rather a serious drama with amusing touches. The occasional crudeness and overt raciness tempted me to tune out a few times, but I kept watching in the hope that the film had something good to get across; thankfully, it did (see below for details).

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hours & 38 minutes and was shot in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-

EXPLANATION (***SPOILER ALERT*** Don't read further if you haven't seen the film):

McKenna (Juno) is a siren, the daughter of a witch. She openly suggests that she's a witch as well. Using her charms, she puts a 'spell' on Rachel (Hahn) at the strip club and so the mesmerized Rachel eventually tracks her down and brings her home. While Rachel sincerely intends on being a positive influence on McKenna and help her get out of the dubious sex business, McKenna intends on luring Rachel into her sleazy lifestyle. McKenna explains to Rachel why she has no qualms about what she does and even justifies it. Rachel is intrigued until she sees McKenna's sordid work up close and rejects it because she discerns that McKenna is unrepentant about her vocation.

Rachel immediately puts the kibosh on McKenna babysitting her friends' girls because she's clearly a bad role model, but the mother has yet to figure out a way to get the prostitute out of the house without making too many waves. That's when the wives go out on the town while the husbands stay home to party with tantalizing McKenna lurking nearby. Needless to say, it's a recipe for disaster and provides a way for McKenna to stick it to Rachel and her 'judgmental' friends.

The negative fallout provokes Jeff (Radnor) to confront Rachel on how she could be so stupid to bring an unabashed whore into their abode. He didn't comprehend Rachel's reasoning: Did she want him to sleep with McKenna? Did SHE want to sleep with her? Jeff failed to grasp that Rachel was under McKenna's "spell" and inadvertently doing her bidding.

Fortunately, Rachel, realizes her error ("waking up" from McKenna's enchantment) and seeks reconciliation with her husband, now fully appreciating her family.

A charming, touching indie dramedy. I watched it mainly because I really like comedian Kathryn Hahn. I've loved her presence as a character actress since she popped up in Step Brothers a few years back, and she's stolen scenes in movies such as Wanderlust and TV shows such as Parks & Recreation since then. I'd heard it was a bad film, but I thought it was pretty good. Hahn stars as a wife and mother. Her marriage (to Josh Radnor) isn't bad, necessarily, but their sex life has kind of died. One night, on a whim, she decides to have a couples date with her best friend at a strip club (her friend swears that it gets her husband's motor running). There she meets a young stripper played by Juno Temple, and she becomes a little obsessed with the girl afterward. Not sexually, exactly, though there may be an element of that. It's kind of a motherly attention, mixed with a deep curiosity regarding the girl's highly sexual lifestyle. When she finds the girl outside of work, she's basically homeless, so Hahn takes her home, hoping to maybe glean some of her secrets. There isn't much of a plot. It's mostly just a film about people. It really gives Hahn, who is in general a supporting player, a chance to shine, and, man, does she ever. This is a fantastic performance. Temple is quite good, too. The men in the picture are a little underdeveloped. If Radnor had been more of a character, the film might have been great. As it is, it's pretty good.