In The Family
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“Sometimes You Abandon a Wrong Idea and It Comes Back to You in the Right Form”: Patrick Wang on His Four-Hour Double Feature A Bread Factory
Patrick Wang (a 25 New Face alum) takes a painstakingly nuanced, intimate approach to delicate subjects, specifically the ways in which we deal with — and don’t deal with — loss and the rippling effects in life after a death. His first feature, the breathtaking, Independent Spirit Award-nominated In the Family, and 2015’s Cannes and SXSW-screening The Grief of Others, which will finally be hitting theaters November 2nd, would make for a great marathon viewing alone. (Provided it came with a big box of Kleenex.) And now Wang has created a work that is simultaneously lighter in tone, and his […]
by Lauren Wissot on Oct 26, 2018 -
Sharing The Grief of Others
One of 2011’s best independent films, Patrick Wang’s debut In the Family almost didn’t get discovered. After being rejected by the top festivals, Wang premiered regionally, at the Hawaii Film Festival and San Diego Asian Film Festival, before four-walling New York City’s Quad Cinema, where sterling reviews from everyone from Filmmaker to The New York Times jumpstarted a 30-plus-city DIY theatrical tour. If In the Family was one of those “out of nowhere” films, Wang is determined that not be the case for his follow-up feature. For The Grief of Others, based on the novel by Leah Hager Cohen and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 28, 2014 -
Life’s Lessons: Patrick Wang Discusses In the Family
Joey Williams almost always seems calm. He maintains a consistent position when standing, slouched slightly forward with his hands in his pockets. He looks comfortable, but also concentrated. His eyes never break focus from the person he’s addressing, and when he speaks the Tennessee-accented words drift measuredly out of one side of his mouth. Joey doesn’t command attention so much as he gradually, patiently draws it his way. Joey is the main character of Patrick Wang’s directorial debut feature, the American independent film In the Family (2011), which will be released on Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday. The general contractor, […]
by Aaron Cutler on Jun 21, 2013 -
HAWAII AWARD WINNERS AND A STANDOUT WORK
The Hawaii International Film Festival fittingly wrapped up its 31st edition last week with Alexander Payne’s Hawaii-set-and-shot comedy/drama The Descendants, with a gracious Payne in town for the screening (no George Clooney, alas, though a life-sized Clooney cardboard cut-out was certainly a massive hit in the lobby). “Wine always tastes the best in the region it was grown and made,” noted Payne to an appreciative audience. “I hope that this film plays best in Hawaii.” Judging from audience response, Payne got his wish; the film (to be released nationally November 15) won the festival’s Audience Award for Narrative Feature, with […]
by Jason Sanders on Nov 5, 2011 -
HAMMER TO NAIL REVIEW: “IN THE FAMILY”
(In The Family opens at the Quad Cinema on Friday, November 4, 2011, after recently screening at the Hawaii International Film Festival and winning two richly deserved awards at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Visit the film’s official website to learn more. *Full disclosure: I am not a film critic. I saw the film at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, where my film Surrogate Valentine was also in competition. I did not, however, have a chance to meet Patrick Wang.) Every once in a while, a movie comes out of nowhere and hits you like a ton of […]
by Dave Boyle on Nov 3, 2011
