Anything

Name: Anything
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: May 11, 2018
Duration: 94 min
Rating: 60
Cast: Brooke Culbertson, Claudia Doumit, Jason Greene, John Carroll Lynch, Margot Bingham

2018

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Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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8.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Paladin | Release Date: May 11, 2018 | R

Starring: Brooke Culbertson, Claudia Doumit, Jason Greene, John Carroll Lynch, Margot Bingham, Matt Bomer, Maura Tierney, Meghan Leone Cox, Michael Boatman, Tanner Buchanan

Summary: Earl is a middle-aged widower who moves to Los Angeles to be with family, and who asserts his independence by renting an apartment in a sketchy neighborhood full of “colorful” characters. Most colorful of all is Frida, his transgender next door neighbor who happens to find Earl—the quintessential Southern Gentleman—just as exotic as heEarl is a middle-aged widower who moves to Los Angeles to be with family, and who asserts his independence by renting an apartment in a sketchy neighborhood full of “colorful” characters. Most colorful of all is Frida, his transgender next door neighbor who happens to find Earl—the quintessential Southern Gentleman—just as exotic as he finds her. Forming a relationship that is at once both unexpected and inevitable, this mismatched pair give each other much-needed trust, respect… and more.… Expand

Director: Timothy McNeil

Genre(s): Drama, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 94 min

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Critic Reviews

Jon Frosch

May 10, 2018

A pleasingly quiet, small-scaled drama about love between strangers and siblings, solidarity between lonely Angelenos and the transformative power of kindness, Anything has much to recommend it. Read full review

Rex Reed

May 15, 2018

I cannot count the number of reservations I had about Anything, an idea with every possibility of being a cheap publicity gimmick aimed at selling the sensational and luring the lurid. What a shock, then, to discover that Anything is anything but. Read full review

Serena Donadoni

May 10, 2018

Early absorbs Freda’s pain into his own, and McNeil builds a delicate idyll from their defiant embrace of unexpected second chances. Read full review

Sara Stewart

May 10, 2018

Though both Tierney and Bomer’s characters also veer into stereotype — her uptight disapproval, his sassiness — writer-director Timothy McNeil still crafts a fairly moving tribute to the notion, as Lin-Manuel Miranda once put it, that “love is love is love.” Read full review

Katie Walsh

May 9, 2018

Anything wants to be an unconventional love story but gets distracted by other subplots, and McNeil doesn't take the time to develop what becomes the central story line. Still, it's a fine showcase for a softer side of the always excellent John Carroll Lynch. Read full review

G. Allen Johnson

May 16, 2018

Suffice to say that McNeil plays it way too safe. Trying to have it both ways, he satisfies no one. Read full review

IndieWire Jude Dry

May 11, 2018

Once more for the people in the back, treating anyone’s identity like a costume is offensive and dangerous to an already-marginalized group. If the filmmakers wanted the movie to have a real impact, they should have cast a transgender actress. Instead, Anything is just a yellow lily-livered mess. Read full review

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GreatMartin

Jun 2, 2018

The best, if not most original, line in “Anything” is said by the nephew Jack (Tanner Buchanan) of Early (John Carroll Lynch) when he says, “Love is Love” and that is what this movie is about.

There is the first love of a teenager, Jack, for a girl at school, the love between Early and hisThe best, if not most original, line in “Anything” is said by the nephew Jack (Tanner Buchanan) of Early (John Carroll Lynch) when he says, “Love is Love” and that is what this movie is about.

There is the first love of a teenager, Jack, for a girl at school, the love between Early and his sister Laurette (Maura Tierney) and her love for her husband Ted (Christopher Thornton), the love between the drug addicts David (Micah Hauptman) and Brianna (Margot Binham) not to mention what might be the pivotal love story of Freda (Matt Bomer) and Early.

Early has just lost the love of his life, his wife, of 26 years, and is having difficulty dealing with the loss. His sister flies in from Los Angeles to their small hometown in Mississippi where he is an insurance salesman and talks him into coming to California and living with her, her husband and son, which he does. It doesn’t take very long to find out that Laurette is a controlling woman who, though she loves her brother, doesn’t seem to be able to stop herself from trying to control him.

Early has received a good settlement from the insurance when he wife died and he decides to sell his home back in Mississippi and to stay in Los Angeles but not live with his sister and instead gets an apartment in Hollywood much to her disdain because she would rather he live in a better neighborhood. She explains that she is worried about him living there alone but at the same time there is a sort of snobbishness that she has acquired since moving out west.

Early soon meets his next-door neighbor Freda and though they are very different in many ways both are lonely. Early stays in his apartment reading, drinking and reading old letters from his wife while Freda, being a transgender sex worker, having a life of being hurt both emotionally and physically, people leaving her, is not open to deep relationships. He is the soft spoken quiet Southern gentleman while she is the sassy, wise cracking one who has seen it all. Slowly but surely she is won over by his kindness, the true love he had for his wife and his reaching out to help her while he, at first, while he doesn’t know what to make of this woman who has lead a life he can’t understand but sees her pain.

“Anything” is one of the first films that offer lessons to those who may be uncomfortable with the idea of transgender people or know little about it and there are one too many clichés but as Jack says, “Love is love” and that is what this movie is about.

Without spoiling the scene there is an interlude when Early invites his sister, brother-in-law and nephew over for dinner to meet Freda that is a roller coaster of emotions that offers a dazzling performance by Maura Tierney.

John Carroll Lynch gives a quietly understated performance that works perfectly opposite Matt Bomer who projects being a woman without overdoing it, holding back on the gestures but showing her warmth, delicacy and tenderness but also her strength. They both give stellar performances.

This is the second movie I have seen within a week where the leads have the chemistry that is rare in films and, like “Beast” I fear it will be gone and forgotten before people have a chance to see it as being an independent film it has sort of ‘snuck’ into town but “Anything” should be seen. It is, also, as “Beast” is, the debut of a new director, Timothy McNeil, who wrote the screenplay based on his produced play and he makes a few mistakes as most new film directors do, those ‘art’ shots, but it is an impressive debut.

(An observation: Matt Bomer has the 'best actor's eyes' since Paul Newman!)… Expand

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