He feels that he should stay on “the edge of everything” rather than run in cool people-circles. Like many teenagers, Bobby is not comfortable in his own skin, and in his particular case, he is overweight and terribly self-conscious about it.
“For me, growing up and going to school and not seeing any anti-bullying posters and not hearing people talk about bullying was very desolate.” – poet Shane KoyczanĪ lush, serene lakeside community – complete with canoes, a diving board attached to a dock, hiking trails sprawling in every direction, and families enjoying warm days, cool nights and plenty of laughs – sounds like a welcoming way to spend a summer vacation. It was about preparation.” – Bobby Marks (Blake Cooper) “Measure of a Man” – “I hated summer vacation. Starring: Blake Cooper, Donald Sutherland, Judy Greer, Luke Wilson, Liana Liberato, and Danielle Rose Russell Written by: David Scearce, based on the novel “One Fat Summer” by Robert Lipsyte Production company: Taylor Lane ProductionsĬast: Blake Cooper, Donald Sutherland, Judy Greer, Luke Wilson, Danielle Rose Russell, Beau Knapp, Luke Benward, Liana LiberatoĮxecutive producers: Robart Halmi, Jr.The ‘70s coming-of-age film ‘Measure of a Man’ stands up Here, Measure of a Man becomes a mildly nostalgic, mildly romantic entry in a genre that, more than most, requires that the viewer feels a personal connection to the misfit protagonist onscreen. But the synthesis is underwhelming onscreen where it might have resonated in Lipsyte’s book. Kahn are all coping in different ways with their status as outsiders. The script finds ways to subtly suggest that Willy, Joanie, Bobby and even Dr. Master/servant distance is an essential part of the dynamic, of course, but Loach and screenwriter David Scearce (who co-wrote Tom Ford’s A Single Man) don’t show us enough ways in which the old man’s cultivated self-respect is transmitted to the schlubby boy.Īlong the way, Bobby deals with a townie bully named Willy (Beau Knapp) whose meanness clearly derives from insecurities about not belonging in his own hometown.
MEASURE OF A MAN MOVIE MOVIE
But however well it is set up, this relationship feels thinner than it should, like something that’s just starting to be meaningful when it’s time for the movie to start anticipating Labor Day and summer’s end. With Joanie away, interactions with the old man will define the summer for Bobby. Overenunciating his words like someone who’s had to claw his way into the upper class (and he has), Kahn pushes Bobby into begging for a job he isn’t qualified to do, then cuts his pay in half when his performance is less than perfect. Kahn (Donald Sutherland), a courtly but demanding man who from the start believes it’s his place to correct this stranger’s deficiencies in grammar and gumption. When Joanie tells Bobby her family has to leave the lake for a few weeks to stay the city, Bobby’s the only one who doesn’t understand that’s so she can heal from a nose job with no one around to see.Īlone at the lake for the first time, with his parents (Luke Wilson, Judy Greer) in a tense marital moment and his sister (Liana Liberato) running off alone with boys, Bobby finds a way to occupy himself: He gets a job tending the grounds of a huge house belonging to Dr. But only the viewer and Bobby see things that way: She’s bullied about it, and like plenty of Jewish girls before her, has internalized her mother’s dissatisfaction. Joanie’s bigger-than-average nose is the kind of quirk that makes her otherwise generically pretty face beautiful.
MEASURE OF A MAN MOVIE TV
Though enjoyable on its terms, the film (the sophomore feature from TV vet Loach, who is Ken Loach’s son) will have difficulty attracting attention.
MEASURE OF A MAN MOVIE UPDATE
Though set further back in time than summer-break fare of recent years like Adventureland, The Way Way Back, and Amazon’s Red Oaks - this time we’re in 1976, an update from Robert Lipsyte’s novel One Fat Summer‘s 1942 setting - the pic’s end-of-something vibe and identification with its young male protagonist inevitably recall them, reminding us that those stories were funnier and more persuasive in most ways. Less a coming-of-age tale than a story laying the foundation for that kind of change, Jim Loach’s Measure of a Man looks at a few months in the life of a teen who is increasingly uncomfortable in the role of chubby misfit.