Indican Pictures announced this past week that
writer/director Michael Skolnick’s The Gliksmans, a black
comedy ripped from the back streets and alleyways of L.A.
Story (an octogenarian adventures along the same
streets, so to speak) will be making its DVD debut on Nov. 5.
As an indie film with an edge, Skolnick first took The
Gliksmans on the road as a film festival
entrant and worked that circuit for the better part of a year … and then
Indican Pictures, a company that seems to have a special knack for spotting
films that are askew of the mainstream, picked up the vibes and acquired it for
both theatrical and home entertainment distribution.
Indican opened the film in three theatrical venues
in late September — not expecting to set the world on fire, but to add some
critical review buzz to what already was in the wind. With that said, the ARR is a
swift-to-market 39 days.
As the film begins, we meet Barry (Jon Jacobs — Lepke, Truck
Turner, The
Baltimore Bullet) and Barbara Gliksman (Bryna
Weiss — one of the co-founders of Buffalo’s famed The Playhouse theatre … plus
such films as Taxi, Keeping
Up with the Steins, etc.), an “eighty-ish” couple,
living in Beverly Hills, on a day like any other day, except that this
particular day won’t be like any “normal” day.
Check that, since it is the only day we are spending
with the Gliksmans, this might be normal for them. Who knows!!
In any, it begins with pills and breakfast (a fun bit, Barry takes so
many pills that he has a double-row, days of the week pill box … morning and
evening rounds), except on this particular morning they are out of eggs. That will require a trip to the market.
And, they have to go to the bank as well. That’s two errands in one day, which is
stretching it for this pair.
One other thing you should know about Barbara and
Barry. Barbara is a motor-mouth who
nags, nags, nags … nags to point that Barry just sort of ignores her, which
means that she just nags louder on the off-chance that he is going deaf.
If Steve Martin knew all of the shortcuts in L.A.
Story, so too does Barbara, she could give him
quite the run for his money. This we
soon learn when the couple heads off to run their errands and Barbara spots a
car following them. Seriously, the car
is following them.
A frantic 911 call and a turn here, a turn there and
more turns here and there and we suddenly find ourselves out in the San
Fernando Valley and that’s when Barry reaches him limit and bails. Barbara speeds off and Barry, disoriented
starts wandering the valley streets, stops into a store and buys a lot of eggs,
for reasons he’s not sure of, and bumps into an old pal (a cameo by Ed Asner)
who is flummoxed over the very busy day that Barry is having … such a thing!!
Eventually he comes across a synagogue, where he figures
that the rabbi will have a phone (Barry’s not into technology) and he can track
down the wayward Barbara.As luck would have it, however, a Minyan is just being
formed and Barry’s timing as the tenth man is spot-on … morning prayers first
and then phone calls.
We are just getting warmed up. Barry will nearly go mad over being stuck in
a Minyan and begins to have surreal flashbacks (filmmaker Michael Skolnick
began his career with animated short films — The
Elephant in the Room and The Moscow Game — and makes
good use of that talent). Barbara takes
the wrong pills and has a few of her own.
The Gliksmans is
an insane adventure on the streets of Los Angeles (think: La La
Land without the music and the love birds a
half-century older than Sebastian and Mia), that is populated with sight gags,
Jewish humor, satirical insights on aging and fun cameos (Cloris Leachman, the
aforementioned Ed Asner, porn icon Ron Jeremy and more).
Oh, and why were Barbara and Barry being followed in
the first place? Nov. 5, The
Gliksmans on DVD will answer that … and
more!!!
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