Written, directed and starring rising star Clare Mamet, Two-Bit Waltz is a dysfunctional indie comedy-drama tells the story of Maude (Clare Mamet) and her idiosyncratic family as Maude falters and stumbles through her teenage years, searching for inspiration as she’s faced with a difficult life choice.
Starring William H. Macy as benign and silent father figure Carl, Rebecca Pidgeon as the eccentric and seemingly absent mother Anita as well as star of Moonrise Kingdom, Jared Gilman as the ‘supportive’ brother Bernie, Two-Bit Waltz is an entertaining fast paced and intelligent coming of age drama. Despite the obvious comparisons to Wes Anderson and the pedigree of Clare Mamet’s parents, this truly is a brilliant standalone feature, with its own merits and its own beauty. Seemingly a depiction of Maude’s internal monologue, and despite its overtly quirky nature, Two-Bit Waltz is a brilliant presentation of teenage angst, hopelessness and seemingly inevitable confusion. Mamet’s seamless switches between Maude’s internal voices, manifested with a man with an elephant’s head and Maude’s declarations to an empty park and the reality of life; this is a picturesque, well directed and well acted film.
Some may criticise and comment on the appearance of numerous actors related to Mamet’s father’s production company. Some may also critique this film for it’s over precociousness and extravagant eccentricities. But whilst, they may gawk at a family that seemingly only eats toast and wonder why, calling reviewers like me indie snobs, I nonetheless believe that this film uses these tools to effectively reduce the dramatism coming from Maude and makes it a much more relatable situation where the world doesn’t see her depression and fatalism as something to be concerned with, but simply teenage angst and indecision.
Inspired, moulded and clearly derived from the depths of Wes Anderson’s filmography and specifically guided by The Royal Tenenbaums, Clare Mamet show’s her directing and writing skills to be a diamond in the rough, not yet perfected, but truly on the way greatness, or at least, indie greatness. Weird and wonderful, but ultimately, relatable, Two-Bit Waltz is the coming of age film that world may not know it wants, but undoubtedly needs.
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