Go watch PIECES OF APRIL!

Already seen it? Watch it again!

I love PIECES OF APRIL. It’s a perfect film and I have adopted, as my unofficial duty in life, the mission to induct as many people into the cult of PIECES OF APRIL as I can before I die. The cult meets bi-annually and dues are $50 a year - which may seem steep but you get a pair of turkey-shaped salt and pepper shakers as part of your membership. So, you know, win.

Released in 2003, PIECES OF APRIL is written and directed by Peter Hedges (father of Lucas Hedges, his second-greatest creation - sorry, Luke). The film stars Katie Holmes as a prodigal daughter who has left behind her messy family in search of a new, independent life in the city. But her estranged mother (Patricia Clarkson) is dying and her father (Oliver Platt) feels it’s important that a reconciliation happen while there’s still time so April (Holmes) is tasked with hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her apartment for the family she hasn’t seen in years.

The film is very funny but it is also frequently maudlin - a word that some may consider a negative. And to them, I say cry me a river. I love melodrama. Sue me! I love having my emotions played with and my heartstrings tugged. I love movies that make me feel happy and sad and then happy again - cranking me back and forth across multiple emotions as if I was on a manic-depressive tilt-a-wheel. When did it become a crime for a movie to be sentimental? When did people stop wanting to feel things through art?

PIECES OF APRIL does make me feel things. I think about my family - my relationship with my sisters and my parents and the road trips where we’d all be at each other’s throats. I think about grief and the desire to mend relationships before it’s too late. I think about the beauty of community and the joy of new friends. I think about how much I fucking love Stephen Merritt’s music. Yeah, the frontman for The Magnetic Fields does the soundtrack for PIECES OF APRIL. This movie does not mess around when it comes to making you cry.

I will try and watch PIECES OF APRIL every Thanksgiving for as many years as I can. I own a 35mm print of the film and hope and pray I have access to a theater with 35mm capabilities down the road so that I can screen the film at or around Thanksgiving again. The film is an affirmation of life and family and the highs and lows of growing up and growing apart and then growing back together again. It’s a beautiful movie and I’m so forever grateful for the fact that it exists in this world.

So, what are you waiting for? Go watch PIECES OF APRIL this week!