Writer-director Melissa Miller Costanzo’s feature film debut, All These Small Moments, is an exploration of the moments that define what a person is.
Teenager Howie (Brendan Meyer) is trying to get through his parents will they-or-won’t they divorce dance as best he can. His father, Tom (Brian d’Arcy James), still loves his wife but bumbles around wondering how they have lost their youthful passions. His mother, Carla (Molly Ringwald), has emotionally checked out of their marriage but is attempting how to keep their family working. Howie mostly tries to make everyone in his family happy and leaves any surly outbursts to his younger brother Simon (Sam McCarthy). Then, as if to counterbalance the dissolution of romance in his parents’s relationship, he becomes a lovesick puppy with a (30-ish-year-old) stranger he sees on the bus every morning, Odessa (Jemima Kirke).
Although Howie is the main character in All These Small Moments, the film seems to be more of an ensemble piece. Not only do each of his parents and his brother get scenes and emotional arcs (all three actors do a really fine job in their roles, especially Sam McCarthy as Simon), but the females outside his family do too. Odessa is going through her own divorce; Lindsay (Harley Quinn Smith), a girl at school who has a crush on him, has her own painful backstory that she eventually shares with him.
The little moments that make up this period in Howie’s life are shot and constructed incredibly well. The street scenes around Brooklyn and Manhattan make this a New York coming-of-age story, but the moments themselves create a universality. The thrill of grazing your crush’s fingers, or the crushing realization that your parents make mistakes are all relatable. The only thing that felt weirdly out of place (and sudden) was the voice over at the end. It gave it a slight corniness that was otherwise absent.
Overall, All These Small Moments has a little bit of quirk and a whole lot of heart. It’s a very fine debut film for Melissa Miller Costanzo.
Photo Credit: Tribeca Film Festival
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