Tuesday, September 20, 2016

James White

After burying his estranged father , an educated, angry and aimless young man (Christopher Abbott), with desultory plans at a writing career, parties with his best friend (Scott Mescudi) while seeing his mother (Cynthia Nixon) through cancer’s final stages. James White is made with sincerity, which makes me hesitant to knock it, but director Josh Mond’s screenplay is so scant and the acting so amateurish at times the enterprise winds up feeling like a film school dissertation. There is an excellent scene near the end featuring Ron Livingston.

** ½ out of ****