R | 1h 41m | Comedy, Drama | May 31, 2024
Actor Tony Goldwyn is perhaps best known for his role as the bad guy in 1990’s “Ghost” and as the Hollywood- royalty descendant of movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In showbiz, as the hoary saying goes, it’s about who you know.‘Ezra’
Spiridakis wrote the semi-biographical script and changed the father-character Max (Bobby Cannavale) from a writer to a stand-up comedian. “Ezra” opens with Max doing his stand-up routine, where, as they teach in stand-up classes, he draws from his personal experiences.
Max often has his autistic son Ezra (autistic child-actor and newcomer William A. Fitzgerald) tag along to his late-night gigs, much to his ex-wife Jenna’s extreme annoyance (played by Bobby Cannavale’s real-life wife, Rose Byrne). For a scene of fellow stand-ups offering advice on which comedic bits to tweak in Max’s routine, director Goldwyn cast his acting scene-study classmate—real-life comedian Dov Davidoff—as Max’s colleague. Both Goldwyn and Davidoff studied with New York acting coach legend Allen Savage. Showbiz is about ...
Max is a classic, struggling actor-artist-writer type who lost a beautiful wife he’s still in love with, to a lawyer (Tony Goldwyn). He’s struggling to get perhaps the trickiest of showbiz careers (stand-up comedy) rolling, while trying to be a good father.
Max has a fairly contentious relationship with his dad Stan, nicknamed Pop-Pop (Robert De Niro) with whom he’s currently living, and who continually goads him about still being in love with his ex, and about how demeaning it is to have to be living with his father. The only thing Max is more crazy about than Jenna, and comedy, is Ezra.
Road Trip
Following an incident where the extremely literal Ezra, overhearing his new stepdad making a facetious comment to Jenna, fears for his life, exits his bed, runs into the street. He’s nearly hit by a cab, so his doctor insists he be put on medication. And also transferred to a special school.Max, who routinely rants at the administrative staff of Ezra’s school on topics ranging from bullying to drugs to special needs schools, naturally and vehemently disagrees. Max’s loud, vocal temper lands him in legal trouble (and lots of lecturing from Jenna’s lawyer hubby). Max makes things much worse by snatching his son from Jenna’s home and taking him on a road trip to Los Angeles in Pop-pop’s car.
What’s in L.A.? Max’s manager Jayne (Whoopi Goldberg), in a hilarious scene where she makes the 6 foot, 2 inch Max, (who’s in a bad mood) sit on her lap: “C’mere …” “No! I’m not sittin' on your lap!” (you can tell it’s their fun routine and that he normally sits on her lap quite often), Jayne tells him she’s finally booked him an audition for a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“Ezra” is also a Goldwyn and Goldberg reunion; they were in “Ghost” together.
All in All
At the heart of “Ezra” is the father-son bond, which feels absolutely genuine. Jenna, much more of an adult than Max, is mostly in a state of feeling frazzled, dealing with what must seem to her like trying to raise two difficult boys, one grown, one autistic, and both extremely hard-headed.
Fitzgerald, in his first-ever acting job as Ezra, is impressive. While it’s now politically correct to cast an autistic actor for an autistic role, as a former actor, I’m partial to the actual art and craft of having a non-autistic actor pretend to be autistic. As the old concept goes—you don’t need an actual murderer to play a murderer. It’s the art of make-believe, illusion, and sleight of hand. In today’s society, if a man pretends he’s a woman, it’s politically incorrect to disagree, but if a non-autistic actor pretends to be an autistic person, that’s also politically incorrect. It’s quite confusing.
One might insist that Ezra’s autistic freak-outs, due to human physical contact or when he’s forced to use a metal fork, feel automatically more authentic. I submit that talented child-actors can play autistic to the point where parents of autistic children wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. But it matters not. It’s a fine bit of acting. Either way, it’s not easy for anyone to have a movie-camera stuck in their face all day long.
The only thing that would have improved the film would have been to give Cannavale some really rip-roaring stand-up jokes that were truly funny; most of the comedy is bland. Not that the comedy-lite detracts from the film’s drama, but it would have sweetened the pot considerably had there been some hysterical belly laughs each time Max grabs the microphone. Otherwise, Cannavale is terrific here as a father whose raw emotion and vulnerability is in full display.
Some parents might take issue with Max’s extreme approach regarding no drugs for his kid. This is, after all, a world where parents recently ostracized other parents for not getting themselves or their kids vaccinated. Most people now know that the vaccine is having extremely deleterious, “died suddenly” effects. Hopefully this realization will get people scrutinizing everything Big Pharma prescribes for children from here on out.
