Everyday People

Jim McKay ("Our Song", "Girls Town") directs this provocative yet optimistic slice-of-life film set in Brooklyn, which recently premiered on HBO.

Covering the events of one long day in the lives of several people in and around a popular neighborhood restaurant that is set to shut its doors soon, "Everyday People" is pretty much all talk. But like "Smoke", another character-driven, slice-of-life film set in Brooklyn (and one of my all-time favorite movies), the talk is fascinating, and the characters' stories weave together in a way that is truly satisfying.

Someone once said (I think it may have been Gene Siskel, but I'm really not sure) that the true test of a good movie is whether it feels like the characters were alive before the movie started and go on living after it ends. Well, "Everyday People" passes that test with flying colors. Though there are far too many characters for each of them to be fully developed, this is an extremely well-written and acted film, and each character feels very real.

Also, McKay deserves credit for not tying up the film with a pretty bow. It ends on a note that feels good, but he leaves several characters' destinies up in the air. After all, most problems aren't solved in a day, and it's nice that McKay understands that.

An added bonus: it features lots of new music by one of America's most brilliant and underappreciated singer-songwriters, Marc Anthony Thompson, a.k.a. Chocolate Genius (pick up 1998's "Black Music" if you need proof).

I'm just a white, middle-aged guy from Toronto, Canada, but all I can say is this is one of the most sincere, honest and true portrayals of the human spirit that I have ever seen depicted in film!

The characters are real, conflicted and familiar and are portrayed superbly by the actors.

I only wish that more films and TV offered as much insight into social conflict, change and diversity as this film portrays.

The title of this film delivers on it's promise of showing "Everyday People".

One of the most genuine and sincere filmic representations of human life that I've seen in recent months. I originally thought that it was overly ambitious, as the director focuses on the lives of upwards of a dozen characters during a course of the day, attempting to share their individual struggles and paint an accurate picture of their personalities. Directors often encounter difficulties in breathing life into one character, but somehow this film manages to show the inner substance of all of these people.

The story revolves around the decision to close a diner in Brooklyn due to economic shortfalls. It looks at everyone: the ethical conflicts of the restaurant owner, the hard-edged competitiveness of the businessman behind the deal, and even the ex-junkie dishwasher's story. It makes a point of avoiding, perhaps even negating, stereotyping based on racial backgrounds, gender, age and every other social factor.

The world shown in Everyday People is a world of problems and hardships with no direct solution - it merely offers the viewer an understanding, something which is extremely undervalued. There is a certain bleakness that arises from this postmodern realism, but McKay doesn't leave you with the sense of futility and sadness. Rather he helps break down the sense of social alienation in the viewer through this truly compassionate and impartial gaze.

Everyday People is comparable to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989), but I would argue that it's more subdued and mature exploration. Do the Right Thing has a more progressive story that builds up to and revolves around a central intense climax, whereas Everyday People is merely a snapshot of these people's lives with some minor character growth. Also, I feel that Do the Right Thing is also heavily biased in its initial premises, which Everyday People is generally free of.

Solid script, solid acting, (all the actors are more or less "unknowns") and an amazing final product. This is one of those movies that will never get the recognition it deserves.

There are not many movies that have been able to hold my attention lately. I find myself hitting the stop button far to often. I expected nothing better from what looked like a slow drama, Everyday People.

But I never once had the urge to shut off my DVD player. It is unfortunate that this movie is almost certain never to find a niche.

That is a shame. The movie is the engrossing story of-shockingly enough-everyday people with normal, everyday lives. If you feel sold out when a nice, simple drama ends in gunfire for some silly reason, if you're sick of CGI movies with no heart, this is you're movie. It doesn't need to force events to carry the plots along; instead, we get several stories that unfold naturally.

A restaurant is closing and it's staff must find new jobs. How they react and how their lives are changed is the story, no more, no less. The entire movie takes place over one work day. The acting is solid, the writing equally good. All around this is simply a well made little movie.

Another delight was that there really aren't fixed endings. Who settles their lives in one night? These people do not. We don't know what is going to happen to them or even if things will be okay in the end; we know only what we are given.

Overall, this is an engrossing, low key drama that you shouldn't pass up.

*** (three stars out of four)

That is how i see this movie: like a living photograph. There is not much going on plot wise, and nothing epic occurs at all, but this movie is engrossing just the same. It is a quick look into the lives of these people, and an unabashed, unbiased look at race relations.

To begin with, this largely unknown cast gives a fine performance. In particular i enjoyed Billoah Greene as Samel and Reg E. Cathey as Akbar. Samel was perhaps the most interesting character in the movie because, more than any of the others, he brakes through stereotypes. He is a young black man, but he has a white foster mother whom he greatly respects, he is smart, and not a womanizer. He represents in this movie, i feel, hope and forward movement in today's society, and the idea that things can get better. The interaction with him and the elderly man at the counter was one of the three most powerful in the movie (the other two being the mother and the daughter interaction and the interaction in the end between the corporate man and the older woman). All three of those interactions depicted the gap in generations trying to communicate with each other in varying degrees of positive and negative. His interaction showed a very positive and understanding interaction and seemed to show that these two very different people, only knowing each other for a few moments, could come to some understanding of what the other was about. This is opposed to the two other interactions that stalled and broke down as the characters were unwilling to accept each other. Samel stands in a stark contrast to the hoodlums show in the movie. He is also the opposite to Akbar who has lost hope completely but seems to be trying to convince himself that there is still some. It is as if his overly pro-black talk is more for himself to hear than anyone else and that he is trying to convince himself that what the corporate man said is not true, but what sadly is true in many inner city areas. Being white and from New York both these characters, in their actions and motivations was, for me, a powerful insight into the black male perspective in 21st century America.

The other life glimpses were profound as well. The single very young mother realizing that she has to resort to degrading herself just to make ends meet, while barely getting to see the son she is doing it for; the corporate man trying to find peace between what some see as selling out his roots and what he sees as the inevitable evolution of the city; the woman trying to make it the business world with an overabundant contempt for white people and her own black roots; the elderly men with families who are coming to realize that their lives have amounted to very little and the simple act of losing a low paying job could ruin even that; and the washed up ex-con who wants the life he threw away back. Overall these were brilliantly thought out caricatures and expertly played.

Before we go giving all the praise to the actors one cannot forget the writer/director. I have not had the privilege to see Jim McKay's previous two films, but based on the reviews, and what i have seen here in everyday People, he shows a strong ability to capture the images and essence of people of all races, religions, and ages. He has a keen understanding of the personal mind, the human condition, the collective unconscious, and how the three interact in the modern world on the everyday level of the average person. He also showed the slow death of 20th century America at the hands of 21st corporate America in ways so subtle it was brilliant. A good example of this is when the corporate man comments, while sitting in a genuine New York diner, that the Hard Rock Cafe will come in and bring real diner food to the neighborhood. He then goes on to chide the simple fact that he has been given free coleslaw and pickles with his meal. This showed so easily his utter ignorance to everyday America and to the lower working class. New York diners are considered some of the best in the world, and you always get a pickle and coleslaw with your meal so this comment illustrated that the corporate man may never have even set foot in a diner before then, which was a profound comment in and of itself. Aside from his screen writing he has a good director's eye for setting up his scenes to show contrast between interacting characters, and of the environments they cohabitate. I look forward to see where his skill takes him next and what he will have to give us in the future.

I find myself drawing a natural comparison between this and Monster's Ball, as Everyday People seems to deal with many of the same issues that it did. Monster's Ball was a big budget attempt at the same type of snapshot of life movie. I felt, next to Everyday People, that Monster's Ball was dry and forced, and handled by people who have been long out of touch with the types of characters they tried to create. Everyday People, with its low budget and its unknown actors, didn't let itself get distracted by its own weight and rolled out very naturally, as if you yourself could have been sitting in the restaurant simply observing these people.

A really good dramatic piece that feels almost documentive feature rather than a film, which is a testament to how close it came to its intent. I definitely recommend this film to anyone who wants a bit of an insight on lives they may never see or interact with.

9 out of 10