Otherhood | |
---|---|
Directed by | Cindy Chupack |
Written by |
|
Based on | Whatever Makes You Happy by |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Declan Quinn |
Edited by |
|
Music by | Marcelo Zarvos |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Netflix |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 100 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Otherhood is a 2019 American comedy film, directed by Cindy Chupack, from a screenplay by Chupack and Mark Andrus. It is based upon the 2008 novel Whatever Makes You Happy by William Sutcliffe and follows three suburban mothers who show up at their sons' New York City homes unannounced. It stars Angela Bassett, Patricia Arquette, Felicity Huffman, Jake Hoffman, Jake Lacy, and Sinqua Walls.
The film had its world premiere at 51Fest on July 21, 2019. It was released on August 2, 2019, by Netflix. The film received generally mixed to negative reviews, although Huffman's performance was critically praised. [2] [3]
Daniel Lieberman, Paul Halston-Myers, and Matt Walker grew up together. Now, living in NYC, they ride with Daniel on his way to propose to Erin. Using his key to enter, he comes across a naked man at his fridge and she comes out of the bedroom mostly naked, surprised to see him.
In Poughkeepsie, NY, Carol Walker, Gillian Lieberman, and Helen Halston meet every Mother's Day to commiserate their sons not recognising the day and shutting them out. Gillian mentions swooping in on them but then takes it back. Helen motivates them all to do a road trip to surprise them.
Carol immediately starts tidying up Matt's apartment. Helen loses her nerve and books a hotel room. Gillian tries at Daniel's and gets a room as he doesn't answer. Both Carol and Gillian call to report their progress, but Helen lies that she is staying with Paul. The next morning, Helen shows up at Paul's. When she introduces herself to his other gay roommates, she complains he never came out to her, although she always knew. Gillian also sees Daniel but is visibly resentful of the surprise.
The moms meet up to compare notes. Their talk motivates Helen to move out of the hotel. That night as she preps a meal for Paul's housemates, his boyfriend tells her a lot of his insecurity comes from abandonment issues as, after her divorce, she never had time for him. When Gillian returns to Daniel's he's out, so she enters through an improperly closed window. He's gone out with Alison, a divorced Jewish woman whose number Gillian gave him. He cuts the date short as she triggers his memory of his recent breakup.
At dinner at Paul's, when Helen shares that he'd never come out to her, he says he had with his father years ago, and she gets upset. Once alone, he apologizes, but she gets upset all over again when mentioning his boyfriend's theory that his abandonment issues are because of her. Matt tells Carol he has a work party that night for his magazine, of which he is the art director.
Although not invited, they give Carol a makeover in Erin's salon. Gillian apologizes for having been hard on her. They accompany Helen to the restaurant where she is to have lunch with Paul, and he reveals he was a sperm donor for lesbian friends. Upsetting her again, Gillian and Carol witness it.
Carol crashes Matt's work party while Helen and Gillian plan to go clubbing. She gets drunk with Julia and when he sees her he tries to get her to go home. Instead, she calls the girls to go out. They live it up, getting pizza, going clubbing, and dancing all night.
In the morning, Julia stops by Matt's to leave something of Carol's. When he realises she hasn't returned, he gathers Paul and Daniel and they find their three moms, nursing hangovers in Gillian's hotel room. Afterwards, the three go together to get presents for Paul's sperm baby. In the shop, the truth comes out that all three of their husbands cheated on the same weekend. Helen divorced hers, Gillian forgave hers and Carol didn't know about it.
Then each mama gets closure with her son. Carol tells Matt she is going to focus on herself for a while. Helen pushes Paul into giving her an address, so she coerces one of the mothers to hold the baby. Gillian apologizes to Daniel about Erin, tells him how she'd forgiven his dad for infidelity, and convinces him to go after Erin.
Julia helps Matt to write the 10 things he knows about Carol, which he sends to her with a bouquet of her favorite flowers. She angrily throws out her deceased husband's fishing paraphernalia. Daniel catches Erin's moving van, offering to drive her to LA.
One year later at Gillian's house in Poughkeepsie, before Daniel and a pregnant Erin tie the knot, Carol comes. She's with Matt who is dating Julia, on return from time in Europe after selling her house. Paul is also present with his boyfriend, the lesbian mothers who got his sperm, and their daughter, Helen's granddaughter.
In April 2018, Patricia Arquette and Angela Bassett joined the cast of the film, with Cindy Chupack directing the film, from a screenplay written by Chupack and Mark Andrus, based upon the novel Whatever Makes You Happy by William Sutcliffe. Jason Michael Berman and Cathy Schulman will produce the film, under their Mandalay Pictures and Welles Entertainment banners, respectively. Arquette and Bassett will executive produce the film. Netflix will distribute. [4] In May 2018, Sinqua Walls joined the cast of the film. [5] In June 2018, Felicity Huffman, Jake Lacy and Jake Hoffman joined the cast. [6]
Principal photography began on June 11, 2018, in New York City. [7]
It had its world premiere at 51Fest on July 21, 2019. [8] [9] The film was originally scheduled to have been released on April 26, 2019. However, because of Felicity Huffman's involvement in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal, the release date was postponed to August 2, 2019. [10] On October 17, 2019, Netflix announced that the film had been viewed by over 29 million viewers after its release on their platform. [11]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 26% based on 27 reviews, and an average rating of 4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Otherhood wastes its three talented leading actresses on a forgettable dramedy about motherhood that lacks humor and feels forced." [12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [13]
Rosanna Lisa Arquette is an American actress. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV film The Executioner's Song (1982) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Her other film roles include After Hours, The Big Blue (1988), Pulp Fiction (1994), and Crash (1996). She also directed the documentary Searching for Debra Winger (2002) and starred in the ABC sitcom What About Brian? from 2006 to 2007.
William Hall Macy Jr. is an American actor. His film career has been built on appearances in small, independent films, though he has also appeared in mainstream films. His major roles include Fargo (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Air Force One (1997), Magnolia (1999), Mystery Men (1999), Jurassic Park III (2001), Cellular (2004), Bobby (2006), Everyone's Hero (2006), Wild Hogs (2007), and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024).
Patricia Arquette is an American actress. She made her feature film debut as Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and has since starred in several film and television productions. She has received several awards, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Angela Evelyn Bassett is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television since the 1980s, she has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and nine Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2023, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and she was chosen to receive an Academy Honorary Award.
Felicity Kendall Huffman is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Lynette Scavo in the ABC comedy-drama Desperate Housewives and her role as a transgender woman in the film Transamerica (2005). Over her career she has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as a nomination for an Academy Award.
Transamerica is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Duncan Tucker, and starring Felicity Huffman and Kevin Zegers. Released by IFC Films and The Weinstein Company, the film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 14, 2005, and to theaters in the United States on December 2, 2005.
Cindy Chupack is a screenwriter and film director who has won three Golden Globes and two Emmys for her work as a writer/executive producer of HBO's Sex and the City and writer/co-executive producer of ABC's Modern Family.
Halston Sage is an American actress. She is known for her television roles, such as Grace on the Nickelodeon series How to Rock (2012), Amber on the NBC series Crisis (2014), Alara Kitan on the Fox series The Orville (2017–2019), and Ainsley Whitly on the Fox television series Prodigal Son (2019–2021). Sage has also appeared in films, playing Lacey in Paper Towns and Kendall in Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, both from 2015, and Lindsay in the 2017 film Before I Fall.
Saxon Sharbino is an American actress. She is known for portraying Amelia Robbins in the Fox series Touch and Kendra Bowen in the 2015 remake of Poltergeist.
The Crown is a historical drama television series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, created and principally written by Peter Morgan and produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix. Morgan developed the series from his film The Queen (2006) and his stage play The Audience (2013), which also focused on Elizabeth.
Molly Bernard is an American actress. She is known for her portrayal of Lauren Heller in the comedy-drama television series Younger.
The 73rd Golden Globe Awards honored the best in film and American television of 2015. It was broadcast live on January 10, 2016, from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST by NBC. The ceremony was produced by Dick Clark Productions in association with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The nominations were announced on December 10, 2015, at The Beverly Hilton by Angela Bassett, America Ferrera, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Dennis Quaid. Denzel Washington was announced as the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award honoree on November 16, 2015. Ricky Gervais hosted the show for the fourth time. The Martian, Mozart in the Jungle, Mr. Robot, The Revenant, and Steve Jobs were among the films and television shows that received multiple awards.
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors, also referred to as Actors on Actors, is an American entertainment talk show television series coproduced by PBS SoCal and Variety Media. It premiered on December 21, 2014, on PBS SoCal.
Escape at Dannemora is an American crime drama television limited series that premiered on Showtime on November 18, 2018. It is based on the 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility escape. The seven-episode series was created and written by Brett Johnson and Michael Tolkin and directed by Ben Stiller. It stars Benicio del Toro, Patricia Arquette, Paul Dano, Bonnie Hunt, Eric Lange, and David Morse.
The Last Summer is a 2019 American romantic comedy film directed by William Bindley from a screenplay he co-wrote with Scott Bindley. The film stars KJ Apa, Maia Mitchell, Jacob Latimore, Halston Sage and Tyler Posey. It was released on May 3, 2019, by Netflix.
When They See Us is a 2019 American crime drama television miniseries created, co-written, and directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix, that premiered in four parts on May 31, 2019. It is based on events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case and explores the lives and families of the five Black and Latino male suspects who were falsely accused then prosecuted on charges related to the rape and assault of a white woman in Central Park, New York City. The series features an ensemble cast, including Jharrel Jerome, Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Jovan Adepo, Michael K. Williams, Logan Marshall-Green, Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman, Niecy Nash, Aunjanue Ellis, Marsha Stephanie Blake, and Kylie Bunbury.
The fourth season of The Crown, which follows the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, was released by Netflix on 15 November 2020.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a 2022 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Johnson and Ram Bergman. It is a standalone sequel to the 2019 film Knives Out, and the second installment in Knives Out film series. The movie stars Daniel Craig reprising his role as master detective Benoit Blanc as he takes on a new case revolving around tech billionaire Miles Bron and his closest friends. The ensemble cast also includes Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.
Halston is an American biographical drama television miniseries based on the life of designer Halston, starring Ewan McGregor. Adapted from the 1991 book Simply Halston by Steven Gaines, the series was ordered by Netflix in September 2019 and premiered on May 14, 2021.
High Desert is an American comedy television series created and written by Nancy Fichman, Katie Ford and Jennifer Hoppe-House that premiered on Apple TV+ on May 17, 2023. In July 2023, the series was cancelled after one season.