Steven and Derick Martini’s Lymelife opens in theaters this next month, flavorpill writes:
Derick Martini’s Lymelife follows this indie-success format in terms of the storyline, but manages to feel fresh — perhaps because it is in large inspired by his own childhood with older brother (and composer/co-screenwriter) Steven. Or maybe it was the intense preparation process. It took nearly 8 years to get made before shooting began early last year: “I submitted the script to the Sundance Filmmaker’s Lab — they choose five or six a year,” he explains over the phone. “You’re invited to Utah and you shoot six or seven scenes over the course of the summer. It’s very experimental. You don’t have a production designer, or someone doing wardrobe. You’ve got a camera operator who’s shooting on digital, and a handful of actors. And advisers like Robert Redford — directors of that stature.
When Steven told me about his script, my intial reaction was, “didn’t Brumbach do Squid and the Whale?” He said its a completely different story on a few main counts, the write up describes
Set in the late ’70s in Long Island, Lymelife tells the story of two average, dysfunctional families. Here’s the kicker: an epidemic of Lyme disease has all the L.I. families in a tizzy. Charlie Bragg (Timothy Hutton) suffers from the mysterious disease, and spends his days hidden in the basement drawing sketches of deer or running around in the forest with his rifle. His wife Melissa (Cynthia Nixon) thinks he’s in the city in search of work. Their neighbors, real estate developer Mickey Bartlett (Alex Baldwin) and his wife Brenda (Jill Hennessy) are on the verge of divorce. A die hard Queens girl, Brenda resents the fact that she had to leave her beloved nabe for her husband’s career. Their constantly bullied teenage son, Scott (Rory Culkin) feels the affects of their strained relationship most.
All in all it sounds like a great film, and I’m definitely excited to see it.
↓ 7 Apr 2009
