Getting to Know You - Cominciando a conoscerti

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.

Martarazzo, Weston, and Braff are amazing in the three lead roles of this independently made slice-of-life film. Bebe Neuwirth plays the mother with her customary excellence. Terrific support is supplied by Bo Hopkins, Celia Weston, Mary McCormack, and Tristine Skyler as people hanging around the bus station. The intermingling of Joyce Carol Oates short stories as apocryphal tales told by Weston is brilliant. However, the film bogs down significantly when it comes time to reveal Martarazzo and Braff's family secrets. Nevertheless, a nice touch at the end brings is helpful in restoring the magic. Altogether, this is a nice independent effort for the promising Lisanne Skyler, but it could have been a tad tighter.

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.

I was totally involved in this movie. It was so intimate--frighteningly intimate. I loved the way that the characters stories slowly evolved. I also loved the settings in the down-and-out areas of New Jersey: neighborhoods on the verge of falling into complete collapse, but not there yet.

All the actors were remarkable, particularly Heather Matarazzo and the actor who played Jimmy. My only criticism is that everything is tied up so neatly: people resolve problems by remembering and admitting the awful things that happened in their lives. It's not so easy in real life. Oh well, that's the movies, and this is a very good movie.

One of the smartest adaptations of previously published material, "Getting to Know You" is a powerful look at family dysfunction, and perserverence in the face of abject personal adversity. Director Lisanne Skyler and sister Tristine (who also appears in the film) not only get the essence of Joyce Carol Oates' stories, but in fact improve upon their emotional resonance. Beautifully shot, beautifully acted (Michael Weston is a revelation in his film)... just a gorgeous and stirring film.