Relatable Raven Reviews

What’s it about?

Several people’s lives intertwine as they pursue love and happiness, sometimes in questionable ways.

Anyone I know in it?

The late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Allen, an incel who’s too intimidated to tell his neighbor she’s hot, and other than a small role played by Jon Lovitz, most of the cast is made up of people I’ve definitely seen in other stuff but never bothered learning their name.

Jane Adams who I know best as Ava’s mom from Hacks.

Dylan Baker has a super familiar face and I know I’ve seen him before but nothing on his IMDb is jumping out at me.

Twin Peaks fans will recognize Lara Flynn Boyle for sure.

So, is it any good?

Woof, that’s a toughie. I’ll tell you that I really liked it but this film definitely isn’t for everyone. There’s a reason why it’s rated NC-17. I have a morbid curiosity about controversial films so I’ve been wanting to watch this one for a while, even though all I knew about it was that one of the characters is a pedophile. I thought maybe this would be a dramatic exploration of a predator’s mindset or something but it shows him as just a guy. Like everything about him is shown in a very matter-of-fact way, even darkly funny sometimes, even as he’s assaulting multiple children. The attacks aren’t actually shown on screen (THANK GOD), but you know that he’s doing it. He’s not the only reprehensible character, either. This movie is FULL of sex crimes ranging from a woman having an affair with her (adult) student to Philip Seymour Hoffman jerking off to unsuspecting women he crank calls (pun absolutely intended). For all its nihilistic criminality, there’s also some truly heart wrenching moments, like a scene towards the end where the pedophile character has to explain to his 11 year-old son what he’s done to his friends. It’s so affecting and awful and raw and beautiful all at the same time. I kept thinking about it for days afterwards. Needless to say, this is not an easy watch, but if you’re as messed up as I am, I think you’ll really like the exploration of how desperate people tend to feel entitled to use others in order to feel fulfilled. It’s fucked up in a very human way.

Anything else like it?

There is actually a sequel that was released 11 years later, Life During Wartime. Same characters, but different cast. Another, less controversial, dark comedy involving lots of intertwining stories is Magnolia, but if you’re more about the messed up nature of it all, a movie with kind of similar vibes is Small Apartments.