{"id":10939,"date":"2018-12-01T03:11:07","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T03:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/?p=10939"},"modified":"2019-02-19T18:31:39","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T18:31:39","slug":"instant-family-a-tale-of-the-true-super-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/01\/instant-family-a-tale-of-the-true-super-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"INSTANT FAMILY – A TALE OF THE TRUE SUPER HEROES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

AUDIO PODCAST OPTION OF INSTANT FAMILY<\/em> REVIEW<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2019_02_15_14_53_12-Instant-Family-review.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

SHORT TAKE:<\/p>\n

Instant Family <\/em>is the charming, inspirational\u00a0and humorous story of a DINK (double income no kids) couple who decide to foster three children.\u00a0The\u00a0film\u00a0manages to be smart, brutally honest, funny and even whimsical all at the same time.<\/p>\n

WHO SHOULD GO:<\/p>\n

Must see! BUT only for older teens and up for language and story content.<\/p>\n

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LONG TAKE:<\/p>\n

SPOILERS!!<\/p>\n

Instant Family<\/em>\u00a0COULD have been called\u00a0Foster Parenting for Dummies<\/em>. This is no one’s idealized version of a blended family. This is not The Brady Bunch<\/em>, Three Men and a Baby, Despiccable Me <\/em>or even……… The Blind Side (<\/em>and you’ll see why that’s funny when you see the movie). \"\"<\/a>But the movie is honest and very funny, miraculously achieving that delicate balance between comedy and drama which many movies attempt but at which few succeed. \"\"<\/a>The\u00a0innate parity between laughter and tears, which exists in the human condition but is rarely found in movie scripts,\u00a0comes naturally to this script because the story was inspired by writer\/director Sean Anders and his wife’s real life experiences of adopting. All of the characters, from the kids to the support group members to the social workers, are based on the real people Anders met through the process – normally flawed humans with the usual awkward family dynamics trying to do their best under difficult circumstances..<\/p>\n

Instant Family<\/em> soft pedals\u00a0nothing as it follows\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Pete\u00a0(Mark Wahlberg –\u00a0Mile 22, Deep Water Horizon <\/em>and Lone Survivor<\/em>), and Ellie (Rose Byrne – Moira from the X-Men\u00a0<\/em>reboot and Bea from Peter Rabbit<\/em>, and who, though from Australia,\u00a0does a spotless American accent)\u00a0from their\u00a0naive, romantic visions of fostering a child, through the often hilarious mandatory support group meetings, the spotty support of their\u00a0doubtful relatives,\u00a0through the decision making and then to the realities of trying to support, protect, guide and raise three at-risk and traumatised children of different ages.<\/p>\n

Sounds like heavy stuff, and it is, but it is also laugh-out-loud funny.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The movie occasionally wanders gently into slapstick and slight caricature but only in a way one might, with the\u00a0humor and affection gleaned from the wisdom of retrospection, remember an experience that did not seem funny at the time but ends up being one of your favorite memories. Instant Family<\/em> reminds me a lot of last year’s equally brilliant \"\"<\/a>Wonder,<\/em> about a family coping with a severely handicapped child. There are no bad guys,\u00a0only the challenge, tackled by adults and children alike, to\u00a0interact with the people who love you as best you can.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And if you ever\u00a0wondered, as the PSA querries,\u00a0that you had to be perfect to foster a child, the characters\u00a0in Instant Family <\/em>will\u00a0disabuse you of that notion pretty quickly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The support group scenes are\u00a0especially funny, populated, as they are, by every possible\u00a0combination of would be foster parents, from: single wanna-be super mom, to idealistic fundamentalist Christians, to an infertile interracial couple,\u00a0to a gay couple, and to our protagonists – an upwardly mobile self employed couple, who\u00a0initially think of these children the way they do the houses they renovate for a living. All come\u00a0with a unique set of priorities and preconceived,\u00a0often conflicting, sometimes counter-intuitive\u00a0notions. Some are even portrayed as ridiculous or annoying. But, fundamentally,\u00a0ALL of them have one thing in common: A core desire to provide a loving stable home for children who have none, and who are often at risk of abuse, addiction and even death at the hands of their biological parents and the environment to which they are\u00a0subjected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>These foster parents, for all of their differences, flaws,\u00a0quirks, and even errors in judgment, are the living life rafts on the treacherous and stormy seas of our broken culture, \"\"<\/a>desperately trying to rescue survivors who sometimes don’t even want to be saved. I\u00a0love\u00a0movies about: The Avengers, Thor, Hulk, Spiderman, Iron Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, Ant Man, Batman, Justice League <\/em>and Agents of SHIELD.<\/em> But these disparate, sometimes awkward, occasionally clueless\u00a0foster parents\u00a0are the true super heroes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The acting is terrific, never succumbing to the easy temptation to sink into saccharine or false empathy, but neither does it\u00a0avoid\u00a0showing the warts of the\u00a0torturous foster process.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Wahlberg and Byrne are excellent and never shy away from\u00a0any of\u00a0the very strong emotions of the moment, but\u00a0don’t dwell on\u00a0them either. And there is a constant balance of\u00a0the solemn with the naturally evolving moments of humor that always arise from even the grimmest of circumstances. For example, the social workers, Sharon and Karen, played by Tig Notaro and Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures <\/em>and Zootopia<\/em>) are very funny as odd couple co-workers. Notaro is the prim, proper, white, reserved, rule follower while Spencer is the outspoken, blunt, pragmatic, black counterpart. But they both have a realistic view of their jobs. When Pete asks\u00a0Sharon and Karen about the foster children’s\u00a0father the only answer he gets is uncontrolled laughter. This humorously speaks serious volumes without belaboring the tragic\u00a0point. In another scene, after learning of a significant hitch in their plans,\u00a0Pete and Ellie\u00a0come home to discover Ellie’s mother, \"\"<\/a>Jan,\u00a0being decorated with permanent ink sharpies. There was no malice involved.\u00a0Children and Jan alike had\u00a0mistaken them for washables.\u00a0Jan, performed by Julie Hagerty, whose unforgettable stint in Airplane<\/em> made her synonymnous with ditzy characters, solemnly offers good and sage advice but, of necessity, while indelibly and distractingly face painted.<\/p>\n

The music is a cheerful and delightful sprinkling of songs like Wings’ “Let ’em In,” George Harrison’s “What is Life,” and\u00a0Jefferson Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop us Now”. The perky upbeats also help soften the more somber moments. You can get the individual songs streaming on Amazon here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The children are very natural. Isabela Moner, singer and actress, is Lizzy,\u00a0the teenager who is simultaneously grateful\u00a0for the safe\u00a0haven Pete and Ellie provide\u00a0for herself and her siblings and understandably resentful of these same people as interlopers to her\u00a0“real,” incarcerated, drug-addicted mother.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Moner has a truly\u00a0beautiful voice and sings the credit song,\u00a0“I’ll Stay,”\u00a0at the end of the movie. \"\"<\/a>Gustavo Quiroz is adorable as\u00a0Lizzy’s clutzy, well meaning and inept younger brother, Juan. \"\"<\/a>And Julianna Gamiz is\u00a0the youngest and precocious sister, Lita.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The two younger kids act with the normal and very believable\u00a0open ingenuousness, quick impulsive affection, manipulative behavior, and selfish temper tantrum demands of normal kids. But the writing skillfully runs a thread of abnormality underneath these kids’ otherwise normal veneer. For example,\u00a0Lita happily plays with\u00a0Ellie when they first meet until Lita begins play-acting with her doll, calling her doll racial epithets and interacting with the doll \u00a0in ways\u00a0she\u00a0is obviously imitating from her previous foster parents. It’s nothing sinister but casually cruel. \"\"<\/a>And it gives the audience a taste of what every precarious day can be like for these kids whose parents have abysmally let them down \u00a0and are in a system which can sometimes fail them. But again the serious tone is undercut by the humorous way the failed foster\u00a0couple\u00a0insist she must have heard it on TV.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A lovely cameo is of\u00a0Joan Cusack as an elderly, awkward, but concerned neighbor who helps to deflate another scene which could have degenerated into mawkishness but for her delightfully eccentric presence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The filming style itself is very straightforward, almost like professionally made home movies, as we see quite intimate moments of Ellie and Pete with each other, with their families, and with the foster kids, and the support group sessions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While there is no sexuality shown on screen, there are sexual topics which come up necessarily and inevitably with the raising of a 15 year old girl from a bleakly broken background who has severe daddy issues. In addition, under stress, there is some humorously interjected but understandable profanity that crops up sprinkled throughout the movie. This, with the serious topic of abandoned and at-risk children, make this movie suitable only for older teens and up. However for that demographic for which is appropriate it is a must-see movie. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AUDIO PODCAST OPTION OF INSTANT FAMILY REVIEW SHORT TAKE: Instant Family is the charming, inspirational\u00a0and humorous story of a DINK (double income no kids) couple who decide to foster three children.\u00a0The\u00a0film\u00a0manages to be smart, brutally honest, funny and even whimsical all at the same time. WHO SHOULD GO: Must see! BUT only for older teens … Continue reading INSTANT FAMILY – A TALE OF THE TRUE SUPER HEROES<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1046,1060,2538,2404,2542,2515,639,2524,2519,1429,1386,116,2516,2517,2541,2513,2527,2536,2521,2530,2526,2537,2522,2512,1546,2739,2531,2514,2539,2532,2523,90,243,2741,2534,938,2718,2535,2540,1374,9,1027,2520,2525,2528,1376,2518,2533,2529],"class_list":["post-10939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abandoned","tag-abuse","tag-act-out","tag-adoption","tag-anders","tag-at-risk-children","tag-audio","tag-blind-side","tag-byrne","tag-car","tag-christian","tag-comedy","tag-cusack","tag-dink","tag-drama","tag-foster","tag-fundamentalist","tag-gamiz","tag-gay-couple","tag-george-harrison","tag-hagerty","tag-ill-stay","tag-infertile","tag-instant-family","tag-interracial","tag-iphone","tag-jefferson-starship","tag-kids","tag-latino","tag-let-em-in","tag-moner","tag-movie","tag-movie-review","tag-multitask","tag-nothings-gonna-stop-us","tag-octavia-spencer","tag-podcast","tag-quiroz","tag-racial-epithets","tag-real-life","tag-review","tag-social-worker","tag-super-mom","tag-support-group","tag-tig-notaro","tag-true-story","tag-wahlberg","tag-what-is-life","tag-wings"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6mhKV-2Qr","jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/poster-4.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10939"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11508,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10939\/revisions\/11508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}