Some movies are getting token exposure in theaters primarily because it gets them listed higher on video-on-demand menus, an industry insider told me recently.
That’s as good an explanation as I’ve heard for a distributor (most likely) paying Cinema Village to play Will Slocombe’s dire comedy about a wildly dysfunctional family’s Thanksgiving, which squanders a great cast.
Peter Bogdanovich, better known as an actor than as a director of late, eschews his trademark ascot to play the chardonnay-sipping paterfamilias — a college professor who joins his disgruntled second wife (Cheryl Hines) in welcoming his adult kids from a previous marriage, all of them looking for handouts.
Even Alicia Witt as the youngest of the bunch, returning home for the first time in 15 years, can’t do anything with this tiresome cavalcade of bickering — which feels like it lasts even longer than your typical Thanksgiving dinner.