Addicted to Fresno

First off it has to be said that the cast is stacked with good comedy actors who have all had great roles in other things, especially the two female leads. So when they are given this chance to shine with no excuse of male influence or bias it is a shame that the material itself is such a letdown.

There is just nothing to this film, the story is basic and not really provocative or interesting enough to justify its creation. Unlike a film like Garden State, where the generally mundane story is balanced with directing choices that give the film a unique melancholic feel that suits these low-key themes, the director does nothing to highlight the stagnant flow of the plot. There isn't even really that much humour to pad out the barely-existent plot. Instead you just get two sisters talking in circles, while occasionally events happen around them, often with little to no provocation. You could argue that 'that's life', but even so the way it is presented is so unappealing that it has little merit as either entertainment or a think-piece.

Overall this is still a movie, there is dialogue and characters and events occur over a feature length run-time, but if you watched it with the sound or screen off (or both) you wouldn't be missing much. If you want a female-orientated film that captures the trapped feeling of small town living then watch Ghost World, I don't know how all the fine elements that went into this came out so banal, but it looks like they mixed flour and water together and made paste.

Apparently a lot of reviewers hated this movie and I honestly don't get why. It's an easy to follow movie, nothing too complicated, but still an enjoyable movie to watch. And sometimes it's nice to just relax and watch movies like this one. It's not the most funny comedy ever but it has it's funny moments. Most of the actors are normally more acting in TV-series but they do an okay job in Addicted To Fresno. Maybe I'm a bit biased because they come from series like Orange Is The New Black, Portlandia, and Parks And Recreation, and those are all shows I really love. I just watched this movie because I wanted something lighthearted with some humor and that's what I got so I can't be disappointed.

"Siblings can really sink each other." Not words commonly heard or realized often, but perhaps ones that can be true given particular circumstances. It's a theme that rings factual throughout this film, however unrealistic the scenarios.

Addicted to Fresno follows two sisters in Shannon (Judy Greer), a seemingly recovered sex addict who has very little moral compass, and Martha (Natasha Lyonne), an eternal optimist who is always going over the top to help her sister with her issues and devotes very little attention to her own well-being. The two work as maids at a local hotel in their hometown of Fresno--a city where not much happens and the people there hate it yet can't seem to get out. Shannon's antics come to a nadir when she accidentally kills a man. She and her sister attempt to escape the mess, which will prove to either help or harm their already rocky relationship.

It's definitely an anti-sibling movie--or at least it wants to be. I think mainly it strives to show us that the world is not as black and white as we have been brought up believing. Society tells us that as long as we hold on to family we'll be okay in the end. But sometimes they're the ones holding us back.

The small town trope plays on the whole "being held back" theme. The girls are two complete opposite personalities, yet they both manage to become complacent in a city that doesn't offer much for either of them.

The film is never hilarious, but does a good job of keeping the tone jovial throughout with some black comedy nuances and some enjoyable sequences thrown in, like a 13-year-old bar mitzvah boy performing a highly vulgar song filled with Jewish puns in front of his gasping relatives.

We get some nice scenes from the supporting cast as well, including Fred Armisen as Gerald, the owner of a pet cemetery, who doesn't get nearly enough screen time, and Aubrey Plaza as Kelly, Martha's personal trainer, who gets plenty of screen time but is mostly underutilized. Solid scenes from Molly Shannon, Malcolm Barrett, and Kumail Nanjiani are mostly what make this film watchable. The timing of the two leads compliments their chemistry very well, but they are given very little in terms of laughable material. I understand that it's supposed to be somewhat of a black comedy, but it never fully commits. It's not obvious enough and most people may just chalk it up to being unfunny. The storyline is intriguing enough and I like most of the decisions that it happens to make, but if we're going to be sitting down to view a comedy we need to know what we're watching.

Although a little uneven in terms of comedic tone, the laughs are there if you know where to find them. The story is one that hasn't really been told in quite this fashion before and the themes are relatable regardless of the impractical lengths of which it chooses to showcase them by. It helps that both characters are deep enough to attach ourselves to. It's not a terrible film by any means, it just speaks to a very specific crowd. And since its role as a comedy wears a bit thin, we may be tempted to dismiss the story as merely trivial.

Twizard Rating: 74 **Review can also be found at http://movies.mxdwn.com/reviews/movie-review-addicted-to-fresno/

Natasha Lyonne and Judy Greer star in "Addicted to Fresno," a 2015 film. It seems to have been done on a low budget, but the movie looks good.

Lyonne is Martha, who is allowing her sex-addicted sister Shannon (Greer), recently thrown out of rehab, to stay with her. She also gets her a job at the motel where she cleans. While having sex with a resident, Shannon accidentally kills him. The women cover the body with a sheet dump him in a laundry cart and take him to a pet cemetery, asking the owners to cremate their Great Dane and the laundry cart. Unfortunately the wife of the owner sees it's a body, and blackmails them for $25,000.

When knocking over the local sex shop only elicits dildos, the women decide to rob a Bar Mitzvah. In the meantime, Martha has had to break up with her girlfriend, and finds a trainer at the gym is attracted to her - but she's too busy trying to take care of Shannon.

Fun caper movie, full of sex talk and foul language, with good acting by both women. I thought the story and the situations were amusing. There is a slight serious undertone, but it fits in well with the film. The outtakes at the end are entertaining.

I don't know if everyone realizes what a huge feat it is to do an independent film. From the credits at the end, many people were involved. Kudos to them.

Addicted to Fresno is full of artfully-crafted deadpan situations that probably created quite a few amusing bloopers. The star Natasha Lyonne has great control of her expression. The other actors and actresses complement her talents well, but she really stood out.

Presumably, this was a low budget movie but nevertheless the cinematography was excellent. As a photographer, I often was impressed with how well the lighting was controlled (for example, the poetry scene on the loading dock; scenes in the hotel hallway, never a good lighting situation; the pet cemetery scene). OK, maybe most people wouldn't care about these details, but if the producer had not properly lit these scenes, the movie would not have been as pleasant to watch even if nothing else had changed. Appreciate what you don't notice as much as what you do notice.

Don't look for any deep philosophical plot; just take the movie as the comedy that it was intended to be. Loved it.