Spinster and I Used to Go Here: Smart Female Dramedies Boost the Rom-Com Game
By Kim Hughes
Rating: B+
Breezy, sort-of dramatic, mostly comedic female-led films about love, career, and the stuff in between hold enormous appeal just now, recalling much simpler times, like back in sepia-toned January, when life was easy. And lived without a mask.
A scene from Spinster.
Spinster and I Used to Go Here — two new indie features, both directed by women, propelled by women and their wise-cracking BFFs and anointed by taste-making film festivals (Whistler and SXSW, respectively) — debut this weekend with consoling if not especially revelatory points to make. Both are sweet-natured and lovely and loosely described as adult coming-of-age stories, and neither plays to obvious stereotypes.
Shot in picturesque Halifax and told over four seasons, the pointedly titled Spinster follows Gaby, a caterer whose newly single status and looming 40th birthday force her to confront who she is and what she wants from the second half of her life.
What follows is a series of bad dates, deep conversations, and the occasional zinger (“Nathan is like Club Soda; all bubbles and no taste”) with married and divorced friends as Gaby makes her self-discovery and stakes her claim on a meaningful future.
All that would be as plain as toast were it not for actor and comedian Chelsea Peretti, who is funnier and far more watchable than even the film’s snappy trailer suggests. Add in a subplot where Gaby ends up caring for her precocious and wise-beyond-her-years niece Adele (Nadia Tonen, also excellent) and Spinster adds up to more than the sum of its parts, even if its primary takeaway — a woman doesn’t need a man to be happy and/or successful, yada yada — is hardly ground-breaking.
A scene from I Used to Go Here.
Arguably less fizzy but with more gravitas and more complex characters, I Used to Go Here is anchored by Gillian Jacobs’ Kate, a sweet and not-so-successful novelist invited by a beloved former professor (Jemaine Clement) to speak at her alma mater in, yup, picturesque but dull Carbondale, Illinois.
Kate soon becomes enmeshed in the lives of a bunch of current students, discovering her former professor is not what he appears and that our college days, though often billed as the best days of our lives, can serve as a gateway to future disappointments. Well, maybe. It all depends on perspective, and how you play the game.
Like Gaby, Kate measures her life against the milestones of her peers (pregnancy, career, romantic relationships). In an interview with Original-Cin’s Bonnie Laufer, director Kris Rey admits the film is semi-autobiographical.
“I went on a little bit of a tour with my previous film Unexpected,” she says, “and that experience inspired the movie…. The feeling of these younger kids kind of being in awe of you, and not really feeling like you've made it yourself, is something that I wanted to talk about, something I thought was kind of unique.”
Which it is, and a strong ensemble cast ably supports Jacobs as she navigates palpable feelings of inadequacy and misguided affection. Neither Spinster nor I Used to Go Here will rewrite film history, but both are solidly entertaining, well-constructed, and worth watching. Masks optional.
Spinster. Directed by Andrea Dorfman. Written by Jennifer Deyell. Starring Chelsea Peretti, Susan Kent, David Rossetti, Bill Carr and Nadia Tonen. Available August 7 iTunes Canada and Vimeo on Demand.
I Used to Go Here. Directed by Kris Rey. Starring Gillian Jacobs, Jemaine Clement, Hannah Marks, Kate Micucci, Jorma Taccone, Josh Wiggins, and Forrest Goodluck. Available August 7 on demand and digital across Canada.