Driveways

By: Amos Lassen

"DRIVEWAYS"

An Intergenerational Friendship

Amos Lassen

"Driveways" is low-key optimistic heart-felt film about trying to survive with the help of others, who are also trying to get by with their own problems. Andrew Ahn has directed this sweet and charming look at outsiders bonding in small town America. Excellent performances by Hong Chau, Lucas Jaye and Brian Dennehy stand out in this modest film about the benefits of small town life. It was shot in Poughkeepsie, New York, where the screenwriters were students together at Vassar.

Divorced Korean-American Kathy (Hong Chau), is an aspiring nurse who brings her young sensitive son Cody (Lucas Jaye) to help clean out her estranged dead older sister's upstate N. Y. house in order to sell it. There was a problem in that her sister was a hoarder and the clean-up will take some time. The story is made up of several small moments and it quite easy to connect with the characters and the inferences given to how so many Americans face financial hardships, family problems, battles over loneliness and struggles with aging.

The new arrivals are cautiously received by their reserved and reclusive neighbor Del (Brian Dennehy), who eventually takes a liking to the fatherless child and warmly interacts with him in a fatherly way on his porch. There's also the presence of the longtime actor friend of Del, wonderfully played by Jerry Adler, who suffers from dementia, yet is treated with dignity. The film is a warm, charming look at a young boy befriending his elderly neighbor.

What should have been a short trip for Kathy who had come to put her late sister's affairs in order becomes complicated when Kathy learns that her sister was a reclusive hoarder and the house is full of her hoardings. In fact, the house is so densely packed that Kathy and Cody are to camp on the front porch and be nice to a series of neighbors who come by with varying degrees of nosiness. Kathy endures the pushy small talk of a grandmother named Linda (Christine Ebersole), while Cody makes awkward niceties with the local children: two polite kids who are just getting into manga and think it's everything now and challenge him to a fight.

When that fight goes poorly, in an unexpectedly grody fashion, Cody ends up spending most of his time with the elderly veteran Del (Dennehy), who spends most of his time on his porch or playing bingo and generally just minding his own business. It's a friendship that opens doors for Cody and Del alike, as they each find a companion who wants peace, quiet and earnest conversation.

Some of you might remember the director Andrew Ahn whose first feature, "Spa Night" was also a story of a young, closeted gay man feeling disconnected from his friends and community and the story was somewhat tragic. He developed no relationships while here we see relationships develop. Del seems to carry the weight of a lifetime on his shoulders and while he is burdened, he is undefeated. Kathy tries to keep her son happy but her life is interrupted with the realization that she never knew her sister. Cody shows how comfortable he is with the older man.

"Driveways" is a film without dire incidents and exciting set pieces. The most suspenseful moments come in the middle of a pizza party and are diffused quickly. Ahn builds his film around keenly observed details, like the highly motivated search for an electrical outlet by a child who'd rather play video games than observe his environment. Driveways" is a slice-of-life movie that remind us all that big stories come out of little things, and that all of our journeys have value, even if we spend years at a time just getting by. Ahn's film finds drama in the intentionally quiet life of introverts.