{"id":19453,"date":"2012-02-09T15:50:38","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T23:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=19453"},"modified":"2012-02-09T22:06:12","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T06:06:12","slug":"mighty-fine-debbie-goodstein-2011-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=19453","title":{"rendered":"Mighty Fine (Debbie Goodstein, 2011): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Linda Lopez<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at the SBIFF.\u00a0 Metro 4.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A good movie lingers with you long after you’ve seen it and\u00a0“Mighty Fine” fits into this category.\u00a0\u00a0It\u00a0was written and directed by Debbie Goodstein.\u00a0 The story is a semi-autobiographical account of Goodstein\u2019s growing-up years during the 1970s with her parents and sister.<\/p>\n

In the opening scene, we meet the Fine family narrated by\u00a0the youngest daughter Natalie (played by Jodelle Ferland), who\u00a0portrays the real Goodstein.\u00a0\u00a0There are glimpses of 35-milimeter footage of the smiling family having fun at the beach,\u00a0constantly moving with\u00a0darting back and forth and side to side.\u00a0 Natalie said that her family seemed to be always\u00a0moving and always running away.<\/p>\n

The Fines are American Jews living in Brooklyn.\u00a0 \u00a0Joe Fine, the father (depicted by Chazz Palminteri) met his wife Stella (portrayed by Andie McDowell) during World War II.\u00a0 Stella was a holocaust survivor and Joe was the knight in shining armor.\u00a0 They both fell madly in love and Joe married Stella and brought her back to Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

The plot begins in 1974 when Joe makes a unilateral decision to move his business and uproot his family to New Orleans for a better life.\u00a0 He owns a textile plant\u00a0in Brooklyn but\u00a0labor costs and real estate are less expensive in New Orleans.\u00a0 He dreams of only a better financial life for his family. The eldest daughter Maddie (portrayed by Rainey Qualley) is not happy about leaving her high school where she is already very popular. \u00a0The mother Stella is a stay-at-home mom and seems amiable to a new adventure.<\/p>\n

Joe drives his family to New Orleans in a Cadillac (which could symbolize his over-indulgence).\u00a0 During this trip there are glimpses into his nature.\u00a0 He can be warm, funny, and quite charming but then becomes hostile at the slightest inkling. \u00a0A new chapter of the Fine family begins in New Orleans where hidden tensions come to the surface and are finally dealt with instead of the Fine family\u2019s tendency to run away from problems.<\/p>\n

Chazz Palminteri, a seasoned actor and successful screenwriter\u2014most notably for \u201cA Bronx Tale\u201d– has given an outstanding performance portraying Joe Fine, the patriarch of the story.\u00a0 Palminteri was able to capture the essence of this tormented man, who really cared for his family, but had anger-control issues.<\/p>\n

The ideology of the story is universal in that ultimately the man of a family bears the responsibility to provide for his family and that women prefer to stay at home to raise the children.\u00a0 Although this story takes place in the 1970s, I think this ideology is still ingrained in the subconscious of societies worldwide.\u00a0 However, there are costs with family tensions surfacing when the bread winner seizes the family reins to steer the family in any direction as if they are only puppets.\u00a0 When a patriarchal figure acts out the old adage, \u201cwhoever pays the piper gets to pick the tunes,\u201d he is only headed towards doom.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Linda Lopez.\u00a0 Viewed at the SBIFF.\u00a0 Metro 4. A good movie lingers with you long after you’ve seen it and\u00a0“Mighty Fine” fits into this category.\u00a0\u00a0It\u00a0was written and directed by Debbie Goodstein.\u00a0 The story is a semi-autobiographical account of Goodstein\u2019s growing-up years during the 1970s with her parents and sister. In the opening scene, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1958,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1958"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}