Delayed Reaction: Landline

The Pitch: How can we make this Sundance dramedy stand out? Set it in the 90s.

Two young women trying to figure out their place in life find out their father is having an affair.

Sundance dramedies are a dime a dozen. I'm pretty sure there's a checklist of things that a movie needs to have at least five of before they can be considered for the festival. I've come up with a few of them:

• Someone needs to have an affair or a relationship that would betray a friend.
• A coralary of that is that there needs to be a sexless marriage or relationship.
• Set it in LA or New York, because that's an easy way to get available talent.
• Make it a drama but cast people we're used to seeing be funny so it gets called a dramedy.
• Someone has a job that doesn't really exist.
• The ratio of "TV People" to "Movie People" has to be at least 3/1.
• Someone dying is a plus. Someone already being dead is better.
• At least one scene needs to clearly be shot at a friend's house or apartment.

Landline doesn't have all these things, but you get the point: Sundance dramedies have a formula and Landline fits it. To be fair, a lot of this has to do with resources. Sundance movies are indie movies, so there's not a huge budget. Time commitment is low, so people working on TV shows who are in between seasons are ideal. Set it in L.A. because there isn't enough money for a location shoot elsewhere. As much as I complain about Sundance movie tropes, I also watch a lot of these movies. They are a good way to see actors play against type or get bigger roles than they would otherwise. Past all the tropes, almost all of the movies are trying at least one new thing I haven't seen before. And, the best of Sundance is normally among the best movies in a given year.

All this is my way to putting off going into much detail about Landline. The cast is good. I was hoping for a little more from Jenny Slate reuniting with her ObviousChild director. The movie is generically good enough. Slate, Edie Falco, John Tuturro, and Jay Duplass are good in ways I've seen them be before. Abby Quinn is a nice discovery and I enjoyed her rapport with Slate. None of it hit any of my sweet spots.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend