Reviews

Momma's Man

A lovely cocoon of a movie

By BETSY SHERMAN | September 16, 2008

3.0 Stars

MOMMA’S MAN: Momma has soup — and, even better, a solution.

Viewers uncomfortable watching characters in stasis should keep their antsy asses away from Azazel Jacobs’s Momma’s Man; those more tolerant will be happily sucked in by this lovely cocoon of a movie. Thirtyish Mikey (Matt Boren) was raised by artists (Jacobs’s artist parents, Flo and Ken) in a Tribeca loft (the Jacobses’) filled with esoterica. Having opted for a contrary lifestyle — in California with wife, baby, and corporate job — Mikey stays with mom and dad while on a business trip. For some reason, he can’t leave and reassume his responsibilities back home. What starts as nostalgia (lazing around in briefs, he immerses himself in the ephemera of his youth) turns into a kind of paralysis. Dad looks on with skepticism; mom, compassion shining from her eyes, offers soup (and, movingly, a solution). As played by the fleshy Boren, Mikey is Baby Huey trapped in a story by Gogol. Jacobs films his childhood home with grace and endows it with an air of mystery. 94 minutes | Kendall Square + Embassy

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