Greener Grass
Comedy |
2019 |
1hr 51min
CAST: Jocelyn DeBoer, Dawn Luebbe, D'Arcy Carden, Beck Bennett, Mary Holland, Janicza Bravo DIRECTOR: Jocelyn DeBoer, Dawn Luebbe 2019 Tacoma Film Festival Official Selection
CAST: Jocelyn DeBoer, Dawn Luebbe, D'Arcy Carden, Beck Bennett, Mary Holland, Janicza Bravo DIRECTOR: Jocelyn DeBoer, Dawn Luebbe 2019 Tacoma Film Festival Official Selection
Head to Tacoma's oldest cinema, the historic Blue Mouse Theatre, for a Tacoma Film Festival feature perfect for a Friday night out. Don't miss this once-a-year indie film event in the Proctor District!
Greener Grass
In a day-glo-colored, bizarro version of suburbia where adults wear braces on their already-straight teeth, everyone drives golf carts, and children magically turn into golden retrievers, soccer moms and best friends Jill (Jocelyn DeBoer) and Lisa (Dawn Luebbe) are locked in a passive aggressive battle-of-the-wills that takes a turn into the sinister when Lisa begins systematically taking over every aspect of Jill’s life—starting with her newborn daughter. Meanwhile, a psycho yoga teacher killer is on the loose, Jill’s husband (Beck Bennett) has developed a curious taste for pool water, and Lisa is pregnant with a soccer ball. That’s just the tip of the gloriously weird iceberg that is the feature debut from writers-directors Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe, a hilariously demented, Stepford Wives-on-acid satire destined to be an instant cult classic.
"In this satire of middle-class envy, [directors] Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe imagine a manicured community where jealous neighbors push politeness to an extreme.
"Drawing from their sketch work with the Upright Citizens Brigade, DeBoer and Luebbe have conceived a place of almost inexhaustible satire potential — where, in a refreshing break from the age of raunchy R-rated comedy, the jokes are certified 99% clean. GREENER GRASS doesn’t need to stoop low to undermine these well-to-do WASPs’ sense of propriety, finding more than enough material raising such questions as: Is it possible to be too polite to your neighbors? Can a well-behaved child ever be too obedient? And can one’s teeth ever be too straight?
"Like a mid-century sitcom gone terribly awry, or the ultimate queering of Emily Post’s rules of etiquette, GREENER GRASS doesn’t tolerate rudeness, but finds endless inspiration in the ways well-meaning people go out of their way not to offend — as when homeroom teacher Miss Human (scene-stealer D’Arcy Carden of The Good Place) tries to accommodate Julian, post-transformation, or in the scene where Jill attempts to ask for her baby back, choosing her words carefully: 'I don’t want to be a Native American giver…' Though the overall goal appears to be silliness, not social commentary, that particular gag is a clue to something deeper that the film can explore, painting an image of political correctness taken to an extreme." — Peter Debruge, Variety
