napierslogs "Family Weekend" is a dark comedy about a 16-year-old girl, Emily (Olesya Rulin), who takes her family into her own hands to turn them into a normal family. But it's not going to be easy; Samantha Smith- Dungy (Kristen Chenoweth) is a workaholic mom, Duncan Dungy (Matthew Modine) is a hippie artist dad, and her brother and sister are maladjusted kids who think they are perfectly well-adjusted.Emily takes after her mother and plots and schedules the success of her teenage life. One of which is her plan to win a jump rope competition, but her family isn't there to watch her compete because they can't think of anything beyond themselves. At the beginning, the film works because we care for Emily, we feel bad for her, and it's time to whip these idiots into shape.She talks her brother and sister into taking her side, and they take their parents hostage and hold them captive inside their own house until they learn to think, talk and act like real parents. It sounds juvenile but it doesn't seem so bad in execution because Emily has a plan for how to reach maturity.Surprising, or rather unsurprisingly, things don't go according to plan and Emily has made drastic changes to a drastic undertaking. I definitely could have used with a few less detours in Emily's strategy as it hurts her credentials as a sympathetic leading character, which is already on shaky ground, what with the whole kidnapping her parents idea and all.Things then get dramatic which follows Emily losing her sympathy, but the comedy gets back on track with a happy medium between her current family and her ideal family and a resolution which is un-Hollywood but still uplifting. There's also a joke (which I will leave unspoiled as I think it's one of the better ones I have seen) that gives a resolution to her brother's dissatisfied life that is funny, original and meaningful all in one.All in all, "Family Weekend" works well as a dark comedy indie even with a few dramatic and comedic missteps because the beginning and ending are clever enough to keep it cute and entertaining.

Filmsploitation The Film Podcast The Review: Teenage-life is full of highs and lows-especially for females. Girls we have all been there. Persistence of hormonal episodes including; tantrums, selfishness and alterations of personality may put some strain on the family home from time to time. 'Family Weekend' elicits this strain through the character, Emily Smith, role-played perfectly by Olesya Rulin, she is a hugely competitive and strong-minded teenager who speculates her parent's roles and determines to change their parenting style-claiming it is simply not good enough and teaches them a lesson.'Family Weekend' has a very straight forward plot; Emily Smith, an energetic and dedicated sporting champion, who practices daily, wins the Rope-Jumping Championship. As she is awarded the trophy, she scans the crowd and realises her parents have not attended. She immediately deems the situation to be a result of bad parenting due to them not having believed in her passion for sport. She decides to confront them about the importance of this achievement in her life.She begins the confrontation with: "Where were you both at 3.30 today"? This is just one of the lines where she seems to put her parents into grovelling situations, some where they are detained speechless. Her parent's react rather relaxed and hope to shake the discerning situation affecting their parenting off by simply claiming they had 'work commitments'.At this point, Emily bribes her younger siblings and her elder brother ,who pretends to be homosexual, into tying the parents up to chairs and holding them hostage to teach them a lesson about parenting. During the 24hour hostage, the mother's boyfriend arrives at the house. A younger sibling lets him in. Emily smacks him over the head with an object near to her and he is knocked out unconscious- this was caught on one of the younger siblings phone-camera and uploaded to Youtube, which seemed funny at the time."Emily Darling, I think it's time to loosen the ropes and listen as a family". This line construed several interpretations in my mind. Loosen the rope or loosen the controllability?. Irony springs to mind here.More about Emily and her frightful attitude is learnt as the film continues which leaves her in a tricky situation at the very end which makes her realise that parents aren't all perfect and the 'knitty gritty' of being in trouble and having to be 'bailed out' , quite literally, peels the wool away from her eyes.If you enjoy films where the protagonist summons a reality check and ones with 'happy family' endings then this film may be right for you. Though give it half an hour, it takes a while to get into.Reviewed By: Rachael GilbertJoin the debate on our Facebook Group (www.facebook.com/groups/Filmsploitation) or on our website (www.thefilmpodcast.co.uk)

monicaprentiss I can not believe this doesn't have many stars. My husband and I watched this last night with our four children 16, 14, 12, and 5. We laughed, we cried, we cheered. And when it was over we had a BIG family group hug. We promised each other that we won't forget what makes each other happy, and we all need to support and love each other. Even if we dread the tennis tournaments, or long days at volleyball. Seeing your families faces in the stands cheering for you, it is what family is all about. The acting was great, and that they were on a Lake in Michigan, during the winter....amazing. Each character was so perfect. So diverse, exactly how a family is. We are all different, and have different passions. WATCH, watch, watch.

TxMike I found this on Netflix streaming movies. I watched it on a rainy morning just to kill time, expecting it to be a "dumb" comedy but came away somewhat amazed how good it is. Each role is acted just right and the situations are always surprising and interesting. This is a nice little gem of a movie.A movie like this thrives or dies on the lead role, and Olesya Rulin is just perfect as 16-yr-old Emily, even though the actress is in her mid-20s. Tiny at 5 feet tall, and with a youthful face and big eyes like Zooey Deschanel, her acting style fits the part.Emily is an organized person and as the movie starts she is getting ready to compete in the sport that is her passion, solo speed jump rope. She places first at the regional, in her home area in Michigan, but in spite of the post-it note reminders she left for her mom, her dad, her sister, and her two brothers, none of her family showed up to see her compete.Most 16-yr-olds would just mope, maybe take drugs, maybe tell everyone how uncaring her family is, but Emily is not your usual 16-yr-old. She decides an intervention is called for so she prepares an evening meal, forces each family member to sit at the table, then spikes the wine of her parents. When they pass out she does the only sensible thing, she ties them to chairs, making them her prisoners until they can all get a better understanding and commitment to making their family work better as a unit. Kristin Chenoweth is the hard-working, driven business woman Samantha. Matthew Modine is the hippy-dippy artist Duncan who has his studio upstairs in the home. Emily's younger sister is Joey King as Lucy, who is always dressing up as some movie character, but she is delightful. For me it was fun seeing one of my favorites from an earlier generation, Shirley Jones as the grandma, "GG ".This is a very funny comedy with novel writing, but it also has a good core of a message, that family members listening to each other and doing important things together matters.