Arts & Entertainment

Arrested Development

A momma's boy experiences growing pains in his 30s.

Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News

Jewish.)
Momma's Man takes
on an additional level of
poignancy if you're aware
zazel Jacobs' delicate and touch- that Jacobs shot the film
ing indie feature, Momma's Man, in the lower Manhattan
begins, oddly enough, with a
loft where he was born
goodbye. An adult son bids his mother a
and raised and where his
poignant, clasping farewell, but it turns
parents still reside.
out to be premature.
"There are a lot of
Mikey's return flight to the West Coast is qualities that Mikey
canceled for some reason, and he ends up
and I share in terms of
back on his parents' Manhattan doorstep.
what's in his room and
It should be a minor blip, really, but it
what he's going through:'
feeds a bout of procrastination that leads
said Jacobs. "That's my
to a bizarre regression and then inertia.
old bed, my old love let-
In short order, Mikey is ensconced once ter and my real old best
again with his parents in the object- and
friend playing my best
memory-crammed flat where he grew up,
friend in the movie."
blocking out thoughts of his increasingly
The level of verisi-
perplexed wife and infant in Los Angeles.
militude, and the fact
Gently comic and quietly unsettling,
that Jacobs and Mikey
the altogether winning Momma's Man
are both in their mid-30s,
unfolds at the approximate intersection of invites the moviegoer
Kafka, Freud and Jack Benny. Those names to view Momma's Man
aren't chosen by accident; an unmistak-
as autobiographical.
Matt Boren, no Jacobs and Ken Jacobs in Azazel Jacobs' Momma's Man
able Jewish sensibility envelops this family That would be a serious
although it's never explicitly acknowl-
underestimation of the
edged.
director's writing ability, but it's admit-
thing parents will have to move out, taking one's self.
Jacobs is too subtle, and too affectionate tedly encouraged by his casting choices:
their stuff with them.
For Mikey, it's a process of decid-
toward his characters, to stoop to broad
Mikey's father and mother are played by
"There are a few pieces of my father's
ing where home is. Is it this eccentric
cliches, but it's difficult not to notice that
Azazel's real-life parents, avant-garde film- work in [the film] and my mother's paint-
Manhattan apartment where he was
Mom devotes an inordinate amount of
maker Ken Jacobs and painter Flo Jacobs.
ings around the house, and these are
raised and formed, with the people who
time and attention to making sure the
Don't assume they're portraying them-
things that I love Jacobs said. "To have
birthed him; or the sparse, unrooted place
men are fed.
selves, though.
any chance of sharing the stage with what
in California with the family he's created?
Meanwhile, when Mikey (a baby-faced
"My father plays kind of a quiet type in
my folks have been doing is a great honor
The mysterious, molten heart of the film
Matt Boren) opts to drown his self-pity in
the film, but that's not the kind of house-
for me."
lies in the relationship between Mikey and
drink, the only booze he can find in the
hold that I grew up in," Jacobs said. "He's
To its credit, Momma's Man leaves a
his mother. She has a special power in that
house is pale sherry.
definitely a thinker and he plays with
good deal of the back story between the
she's the only one who physically touches
Both parents are artists, and they're,
these toys, but there was always a lot of
three main characters unexplained, can-
him, provoking the most powerful and
shall we say, more adept at nonverbal
discussion going on in that home."
nily inviting us to fill in the blanks and
cathartic emotions.
communication than casual conversation.
Several key moments in Momma's
connect the dots. We start imagining what
Resonant, moving and, yes, unexpect-
In lieu of a man-to-man chat, the father
Man take place at the dining room table,
Mikey's adolescence was like, and we can't edly mature, Momma's Man is a gentle
prefers to pick up a wind-up toy from his
including a marvelous scene that features
help but conclude that his parents didn't
corrective to the stereotype of suffocat-
collection and set it in motion. All in all,
a wee Azalel at that table in Ken's 1976
do a stellar job of preparing him for the
ing Jewish mothers and rebellious Jewish
the dynamic between Mikey and his par-
short film Spaghetti Aza.
outside world.
sons. At the same time, it is a welcome,
ents falls somewhere between existential
"I felt that in some ways I resembled
Their failure is grounded, perhaps, in
low-key antidote to the manic Hollywood
comedy and the submerged tensions of
Mikey enough for them to be the same
what generally seems to be a trait of Jews
comedies about boy-men who refuse to
Next Stop, Greenwich Village.
person," Jacobs said. "And I love the fact
of a certain generation, namely that they
grow up. ❑
Rest assured that Mom and Dad recog-
that they're sitting at that table now, and
forever view their grown children as chil-
nize Mikey's malingering in their house
it's the same table where this footage was
dren, rather than as independent adults.
as a seriously unhealthy development. But
shot when I was 4 years old."
But there's no animosity or bitterness or
Momma's Man will be shown at the
his father lacks the words or the moxie
Part of Jacobs' inspiration for his third
resentment in Momma's Man. The linger-
Detroit Film Theatre in the Detroit
to push Mikey into adulthood, and his
feature was to document a space and a
ing sensation is wistfulness — for dreams
Institute of Arts 7 p.m. Friday and
overprotective mother will never cast him place that was so crucial in his upbringing not fulfilled, talents not inherited, the road
Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct.10-
out of the house. (That latter characteristic — and won't always exist. At some point
not traveled and, not least, the necessity of
12. $6.50-$7.50. (313) 833-4005 or
may be the ultimate tip-off that they're
in the not-too-distant future, his 70-some- growing up and taking responsibility for
www.tickets.dia.org.

A

October 9 • 2008

B19