Fun far from Cannes

The Festival de Cannes is currently in full swing over on the lovely coast of France. Some of the best and the brightest filmmakers, actors, directors, producers and film buffs are gathered to watch the likes of Tilda Swinton in Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Kirsten Dunst in Lars von Trier's Melancholia. Both films sound excellent and I hope to be able to say more about them soon. For the moment though I'd like to offer the light, refreshing palate cleanser of a comedy, The Best and the Brightest about the difficulty of finding a slot at a good kindergarten in Manhattan.

Finding a good kindergarten; public, private, magnet, language immersion, charter, homeschooling program, etc. is difficult just about everywhere (and as the parent of a first grader, I know how hard it can be) but it's a special kind of impossible up in Manhattan.

The movie starts with parents Jeff and Samantha (Neil Patrick Harris and Bonnie Somerville) moving to Manhattan with their five year old daughter only to discover there are no available options anywhere. They are forced to take matters into their own hands, or at least to hire the competent hands of Sue Lemon (Amy Sedaris.)

In order to stand out above the crowd of deep pocketed parents desperate to get their child the coveted last spot at a good private school, they fudge the truth and make Jeff out to be an accomplished poet. But the question arrises; how will he produce the poetry? Due to a series of accidents, the source for poetic content is mined from the raunchy

texts between an old college friend and a series of lovers. The earnest reading of these texts, especially as read by pokerfaced John Hodgman, steal the show.

The fact that the poet has no clothes, both in the sense of the fable and in the sense of the innuendo, becomes a hilarious punchline. No, it wouldn't go to Cannes, but it was an enjoyable farce. I laughed and laughed, then I cringed a bit, then I laughed

some more, then I hid under a blanket cringing a couple more times, then I laughed and laughed even more.

Fun Philly side note: the film is set in Manhattan but filmed, rather obviously to

anyone familiar with either city, in Philadelphia. I'm assuming they couldn't both set and film it in Philly because, unlike Manhattan, parents are generally able to hold off until their kids are eating solid food and making a stab at language before having to pick a school. Watch for iconic shots of the Union League and the Rittenhouse Square frog statue!

Watch the Trailer Here!