Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Indican Pictures Selects Nov. 05 As The Street Date For The DVD Debut Of Writer/Director Michael Skolnick's The Gliksmans


DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
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.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
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.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph TribbeyOne 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!!

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
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!!!

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey






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