With all the films from Quebec being viewed lately, I decided to look for something a bit different.
That’s when I found American Autumn (Albert Moya, 2013). A very interesting drama that starts out with a little girl named Catherine preparing a dinner saying it requires courage and the right ingredients. Like all the children in the film, she’s playing an adult character.
We watch child couple Michael and his erm, wife, Pauline arguing about whether or not they should go to the dinner. Meanwhile the girl serving dinner, Catherine, argues with her geeky husband Trevor while she sorts out the table. Trevor tries to get his honest opinion through to Catherine but she doesn’t care. Catherine is jealous of her sister Victoria who seems to have accomplished more in the cooking world.
As the dinner goes on as planned, these kid-like couples talk about medications, teaching film courses, and other adult-like situations. However, they get an unexpected guest, Victoria’s ex-husband Jerry, a smoking drunk who pretty much badmouths everyone no matter what. When Jerry starts blabbering a secret about Victoria, things get out of control and a couple of arguments arise.
I liked the tone and appearance of this movie and I guess they were trying to show something with these 40-year-old adults being acted by children. There’s only one adult in the film and he looks kind of out of place. I have to wonder what this movie would be like if they actually used adult actors.
