Being Flynn (2012)

Jack and I liked this story of 30 year old Nick Flynn (Paul Dano) searching for meaning in his life and finds it when his estranged father Jonathan (Robert De Niro) shows up to stay at the homeless shelter where Nick works. Quite a departure from the paycheck collaboration between De Niro (last mentioned in these pages in Limitless) and director Paul Wietz in Little Fockers (Weitz is profiled in the latter post), this allows De Niro and Dano (the latter most recently in Cowboys & Aliens) to stretch dramatically, as they are both wont to do. 

Adapted by Weitz from the memoir written by the real-life Nick Flynn, Another Bulls**t Night in Suck City, you'll feel the pain, the cold, and the hurt of son, father, and mother (Julianne Moore (Crazy, Stupid, Love. last year) in flashbacks). Then we have the dependable talents of Olivia Thirlby (No Strings Attached) and Lili Taylor (my favorites: part of the ensembles in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993) and Prêt-à-Porter (1994) and 25 episodes of Six Feet Under (2002-05), Mystic Pizza (1988), Say Anything... (1989), Household Saints (1993) which won her an Independent Spirit Award, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), High Fidelity (2000), Casa de los Babys (2003), The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), and Starting Out in the Evening (2007)). Thirlby's Denise has my favorite line, "It's hard to stay changed." (This spoiler-laden review--read after you've seen the movie--says she didn't say it, but I maintain she did.) For fans of Showtime's Homeland, Chris Chalk (played Tom Walker on that show) is one of Nick's roommates. Dale Dickey (won an Independent Spirit Award for Winter's Bone) makes an appearance early on and I predicted correctly her character would return since she's a little bit of a big deal.

Damon Gough, using the stage name of Badly Drawn Boy, provides the soundtrack, as he did for the Weitz Brothers' About a Boy (2002). You can listen to clips here. I made a note on my phone that I counted 13 songs in the credits, but since there are 15 listed above, it's probably my mistake.

Critics haven't been kind to this one: 54% on rottentomatoes with audiences weighing in at 64, but Jack and I think it's better than that, somewhere in the 80s. You can read a lot about it on the movie's official website, but probably better to wait on that, too, if you dislike spoilers as much as I. Just don't let the critics spoil your enjoyment of this drama, as there's a lot to like.