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All These Small Moments gives you a taste of so many great stories and leaves you hungering for more from each one.
| Director(s) | Melissa B. Miller-Costanzo | |
| Screenplay By | Melissa B. Miller-Costanzo | |
| Date Released | Festival Circuit | |
| Genre(s) | Coming of Age, Drama | |
| Noted Actors | ||
| Howie | Brendan Meyer | |
| Lindsay | Harley Quinn Smith | |
| Odessa | Jemima Kirke | |
| Clara | Molly Ringwald | |
| Tom | Brian d’Arcy James | |
| Simon | Sam McCarthy | |
Summary
Howie is going through a bit much right now. His parents are on the verge of divorcing, he has this huge, kind of awkward, crush on this woman he sees on the bus, and this girl named Lindsay has an interest in him. Which isn’t a terrible thing but with there being rumors she has rashes of some kind, a major red flag is raised – despite him spending many a day with friends touching themselves in a basement.
And that’s pretty much it.
Other Noteworthy Facts & Moments
- It seems months past in the film, despite hardly anything making it seem that way.
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On The Fence
It’s An Ensemble Film You Wished Focused On One Relationship And Just Featured The Others
Straight up, one of the main issues with this film is it that it has too many quality stories going on at once and each one feels way too short. To begin, you have Howie’s pursuit of Odessa, the older woman on the bus, and also Lindsay. That in itself is its own movie. For with Odessa going through a divorce, which is getting nasty, paired with Lindsay who is dealing with rumors about her that stemmed from her nearly being assaulted, there is more than enough going on there.
But then there are other stories on top of that. You have Howie’s parents, Clara and Tom, who have hit a point in their relationship where they kind of don’t give a damn anymore. Clara doesn’t put any effort into being alluring or plain nice to Tom, and because of that, or reacting to what she is reacting to, he begins to stray. Which affects their younger son, Simon, in a way where he seems torn between his loyalties to both.
And as a whole, the movie is enjoyable. It’s just, as you see everything play out, it makes you wish you didn’t feel like you just got enough to get what was going on but felt the full weight of the situation. For example, Lindsay revealing the full story about the rash rumor seemed like something that should have came with really getting to know Howie. For him going from the brother of someone she had French with to sharing something so personal came off a bit weird.
No Sense of Time Passing
Primarily because, with this film, the passage of time is a bit strange. In fact, until Simon notes it has been months since his parents’ issues have become known to him, thus making it seem from beginning to end months have passed, you may think this whole movie took places over days. Maybe a few weeks.
Which, until that got noted, nothing made sense. It didn’t make sense how Lindsay became so comfortable with Howie to talk about a time she almost got assaulted or raped. Nor how Odessa could go from a woman who barely did more than see this kid to someone who decided to not call out his stalking for she found it weirdly endearing. Much less Tom and Clara to go from, you cheated on me to let’s go to counseling and maybe getting back together.
Overall: Mixed (Divisive)
As the title perhaps implies, the film is basically a summary of small moments which made Howie who he is. The problem with that is, a lot of these small moments you wish got expanded on. However, they aren’t and add in you aren’t clear on the passage of time as we go from moment to moment, that causes some issues in understanding how someone comes to a point of forgiveness or wanting to become closer to Howie.
Leading to why the mixed label. While you’ll like the characters and their arc, each arc feels incomplete. Thus making each one feel like a fragmented memory of Howie’s that he is telling in some How I Met Your Mother type of way.
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