Stephanie Daley.

"[T]oo many independent films seem pathologically allergic to melodrama, as if the greatest works of the Western tradition didn't involve war, murder, sexual betrayal and unlikely coincidence," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. Not this one: "Despite an overly abrupt and oblique conclusion, this is a major American film, announcing the arrival of an independent director who deserves all the hype."

Updated through 4/26.

"There is a fine line between a human drama with its own life and an issue-oriented dramatic essay," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "And if Stephanie Daley, written and directed by Hilary Brougher, didn't have its ear so perfectly tuned to intergenerational dialogue, and to the severe language of sex education in schools where abstinence is taught as the only acceptable form of birth control, it would come across as just such an essay."

"By remaining physically and emotionally attuned to her actors (as they are, in turn, to their characters) and not simply the considerable melodramatic heft of her story, Brougher avoids the towel-wringer this unfortunately topical story could have been had it been called, say, The Ski Mom," writes Michelle Orange. "Between [Tilda] Swinton's wounded, watchful eyes and [Amber] Tamblyn's soft internality emerges something that transcends the inherently stale nature of their transactions."

Also at the Reeler, ST VanAirsdale talks with Brougher.

Earlier: Karen Durbin's interview with Brougher for the NYT.

Update, 4/21: "An examination of the Sundance lab films of the 21st century reveals an alarming trend towards homogenization, and Stephanie Daley, a product of the Directors Lab, is a near-perfect example of the negative effect that Hollywood-style development has had on independent film," writes Annie Frisbie in a fine analysis at the House Next Door. "To begin with, Stephanie Daley uses tight causality in a classic setup/payoff dependent structure. Story choices are limited to those that advance the plot, and the tighter the causality, the less able the viewer is to construct alternate meanings."

Update, 4/23: IndieWIRE interviews Brougher.

Updates, 4/26: "There is so much to admire and empathize with in Stephanie Daley that it feels almost boorish to quibble about whether the film needs to come packaged as a murder mystery," writes Ella Taylor in the LA Weekly. "Stephanie Daley is most persuasive as a realist family drama made by a writer-director whose forte is the accretion of quotidian detail that, as much as any crisis, tells us who her characters are. It is also, with luck, a career-clinching showcase for Tamblyn, daughter of my first-ever movie crush Russ Tamblyn."

Jennifer Merin talks with Brougher for the New York Press.

Susan King talks with Tamblyn - Amber, of course - for the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dwhudson at April 20, 2007 4:02 PM