March 30th, 2014: Los Angeles has always been a tough city to make a living. Young kids with tickets and dreams get lured by the thousands every year. For the lucky few who win that lottery, their dreams come true, but for the rest, it’s all about dusting off that loathsome Plan B and letting those dreams of bright lights slowly fade. Alexis is waffling somewhere in that middle ground just barely hanging on.
Revolving around a steady lineup of emotional baggage, from her philandering husband to the humiliating fast food gigs and phone sex operator jobs, Alexis Rodriguez Fish (Gina Rodriguez) has just about had it. With the death of her aunt, Alexis reluctantly flies home to Brooklyn and straight into the protracted family drama she thought she left behind. Steeped in Latin and Jewish roots, Alexis fights the family’s professional aspiration yearnings and polarizing situations to make her own career path in Writer / Director Nicole Gomez Fisher’s gut-busting comedy, “Sleeping with the Fishes”.
The opening dream sequence framed as a game show meltdown pitting Alexis against her mother, Estella Fish (Tony Award winning actress, Pricilla Lopez) sets the frenetic pace and sassy Latina retorts that reveals the chasm of disconnect that spirals throughout the entire narrative between mother and daughter. Their tension filled diatribes on Alexis’s rubenesque posterior and make-up free face are somewhat stonewalled by her father Dr. Leonard Fish (Tibor Feldman), but Estella never misses a chance to hard-peddle her vexations on a stairwell, at the dinner table, sitting Shiva – anywhere. Championing the rights of little sis is her wonder twinning power bundle of hard charging fierceness in the form of big sister Kayla (Ana Ortiz). Fisher’s international accolades for her comedy writing become self-evident with the fluid breezy sibling banter and comedic timing that exist between Alexis and Kayla. This love hate, hate hate and oh no she didn’t sisterhood mash-ups form organically with gusto.
Sleeping with the Fishes Trailer from Nicole Gomez Fisher on Vimeo.
When Kayla does her party planning little sister a solid by hooking her up with the Wasserstein Bat Mitzvah, tensions mount. Add to that a micro budget, a one week (not two) timeline and the ongoing power struggles between Mrs. Wasserstein (Orfeh), and her temperamental little princess Sharie and what little respite Alexis thought she had at home was now gone. Making party planning miracles happen is what Alexis does best and with Kayla as her wing women, they get to work. Fisher successfully pivots the storyline once more by stoking the embers of a fledgling relationship when a dance injury by Kayla lands Alexis and club manager Dominic (Steven Strait) into a spark induced conversation.
Without being too preachy, Sleeping with the Fishes cleverly tackles issues surrounding family values, generational differences and finding ones true identity in the face of mounting expectations. Estella imparts to Alexis some sage advice on the perils of being a Latin Jew and the effect image plays on everything. Family matters and Fisher manages to wades through torrents of dysfunctional infighting, that is no stranger to every household, and still capture the deep rooted love that keeps them all together.
Verdict: 4 out of 5: Universal themes of culture, family, coming of age and finding meaningful love get are fresh retelling as only Nicole Gomez Fisher could deliver. With the intricacies and fiery emotion of a Latina sisterhood firmly driving this comedic engine, Sleeping with the Fishes never finds itself shackled to tepid, yawn-inducing characters that hobble most comedies. Rodriguez and Ortiz completely dominate the real estate upon which their characters inhabit with a physical presence that’s authentic. And, as clichéd as the overbearing mother characters can be, Priscilla Lopez layered performance added a surprising amount of depth and warmth not usually seen in this character archetype. Poignant without pandering, Sleeping with the Fishes is a spicy fresh take on the comedic family drama.
Family Matters.
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Nicole Gomez Fisher
Screenwriter: Nicole Gomez Fisher
Producer: Courtney Andrialis
Director of Photography: Raoul Germain
Editor: Carlos Berrios
Cast: Gina Rodriguez, Steven Strait, Ana Ortiz, Priscilla Lopez, Tibor Feldman, Orfeh, Monica Steuer, John Cariani
Awards: Best New Director, Brooklyn Film Festival 2013
Type of Premiere: Toronto
Film Year: 2013
Run Time: 95 minutes
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