Review: Why Stop Now
Directed by: Phil Doring and Ron Nyswaner
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Melissa Leo, Tracy Morgan, and Isaiah Whitlock Jr.
Plot: Eli (Jesse Eisenberg) is a young piano prodigy. When a great opportunity presents itself, he tries to get his mother, Penny (Melissa Leo), into rehab so that he feels safe leaving her in charge of his young sister. Due to an unusual loophole, they need to score from her drug dealers (Tracy Morgan and Isaiah Whitlock Jr.) and get her high one last time.
Review:
Why Stop Now takes place within a 24 hour time period. Eli has an audition to get into a prestigious piano program. This program would force him to move away for a year. To make sure that his home and young sister would be taken care of, he needs to get his mother, Penny, to rehab so she is clean and sober when he takes off. In a darkly humorous set of circumstances, Penny is rejected from rehab because she doesn’t have health insurance to cover it nor does she have dirty urine that would suggest the rehab overlook her lack of insurance. She is basically told very bluntly, “Go get high and we’ll let you in!” So Eli and Penny set out to do just that. Unfortunately, its not as easy as it sounds.
The movie works pretty much like a road movie even though the cast doesn’t leave the city. They buzz around town meeting new people and getting into bad situations. Every action and inaction causes their problems to compound, but they learn and grow closer the more they travel. It is a pretty archetypical storyline, but the filmmakers thankfully don’t hammer home the sentimentality. They don’t write the moral of the story in big neon lights. Everything feels natural and genuine. No emotions ever feel forced, except for maybe a few moments by Eisenberg.
Jesse Eisenberg is starting to tire for me. His performances were nice at first, but they are becoming too similar. His only saving grace seems to be that he has a real knack for choosing projects. It’s not as if he can’t act, there are moments in Why Stop Now where great acting shines through, but he seems to keep going back to his safe place, which seems to take too much inspiration from Woody Allen’s stuttering awkwardness. At one point, Eli accidentally gets stoned and that seems to make him even more awkward.
Thankfully, his co-stars elevate the rest of the movie. Melissa Leo is fantastically over the top. Her junkie ways make her loud, obnoxious, and unpredictable, but she is far from your stereotypical neglectful stoned mother. She is very much invested in her children’s happiness and future. Sometimes that means coddling them too long like she does with her young daughter, but that also means being supportive and excited about Eli’s chance to move out in order to follow a dream. I think it is Hollywood’s instinct to make a neglectful mother pout and be selfish when she finds out that the child who is holding the family together is taking off. Leo is more hippie than junkie. They are accompanied by her drug-dealers, a pair of motor-mouthed alpha males who are more affable than you would expect. Isaiah Whitlock Jr. is chameleon. Between this and his roles in The Wire and Cedar Rapids, it’s hard to imagine they are all the same guy. Tracy Morgan was probably the most impressive. He is cleverer than usual, investing in timing and restraint, which is something he is not known. He may have been the most enjoyable to watch of all.
Why Stop Now is a really fantastic dramedy. Like all the best dramedies, the comedy informs the drama and vice cersa. They do not simply exist at the same time. It brings together a hodgepodge of talented people and gives them some simple but emotional content to work with. It is a very understated movie that will sneak up and charm you.
