S. Phila. family drama
There's a scene in Tom Quinn's very fine The New Year Parade in which the bandleader of the South Philadelphia String Band, beginning a rehearsal, reminds the guys with their saxes and banjos that the silence between the notes is as key as the notes themselves.
There's a scene in Tom Quinn's very fine
The New Year Parade
in which the bandleader of the South Philadelphia String Band, beginning a rehearsal, reminds the guys with their saxes and banjos that the silence between the notes is as key as the notes themselves.
"The space with no sound is as important as the space with notes in it," he says.
Those are wise words, and Quinn, a Philadelphia-area writer and director, has taken them to heart. A keenly observed drama about the breakup of a South Philly family,
The New Year Parade
is full of quiet
and
noise - numb sorrow and popping fireworks.
Stretching over the course of a year, with the Mummers Parade and its preparations ever present, Quinn's movie trolls the rowhouses, taverns and diners of South Philadelphia, describing the dissolution of the McMonoguls: A wife (MaryAnn McDonald) who's had an affair, a husband (Andrew Conway) who can't deal with it, and their kids, a high school girl, Kat (Jennifer Welsh), and a twentysomething son, Jack (Greg Lyons), coming to grips.
Quinn captures the gritty textures of the city - the crosshatching phone wires, the metal awnings, the stalls of the Italian Market. And he finds beauty there, like the hulk of a given-up-for-dead ocean liner moored on the Delaware, looming large over an affectionate encounter between Kat and her dockworker dad.
The strengths of
The New Year Parade
- its documentary-like measure of the every day, its easy barroom banter - sometimes become a weakness, too. A few of the performances feel forced, or self-conscious, underwritten or overexposed. But the main players are strong, and Irene Longshore as Jack's new girlfriend, and Tobias Segal as Kat's school friend, are both memorable.
The New Year Parade
won the grand jury prize at the recent Slamdance Film Festival. It deserves more recognition down the line - and not just from local audiences who see themselves, literally and figuratively, in Quinn's beautifully composed frames.
The New Year Parade *** (Out of four stars)
Directed by Tom Quinn. With Andrew Conway, Irene Longshore, Greg Lyons, MaryAnn McDonald, Tobias Segal and Jennifer Welsh. Distributed by Station House Films.
Running time:
1 hour, 30 mins.
Parent's guide:
No MPAA rating (profanity, adult themes)
Playing at:
Prince Music Theater, today at 4:45 p.m.