My “Cloudburst” Review
You won’t believe the things that Olympia Dukakis says in Cloudburst. If you can get through the entire movie without your mouth flopping open at least once, your jaw has stronger hinges than mine. It’s dialogue is written and delivered to shock, the turns in the plot designed to set up the next big joke. Make no mistake about it. Cloudburst is a comedy first, as a comedy should be.
Exhibit 1 – Featuring one of my favorite lines. But there were many. Thom Fitzgerald is a genius with dialogue.
It’s also a movie with a beating heart. It’s about love that lasts and forgives our foibles and fears it doesn’t have enough to offer us anymore. It’s about how hard we fight to keep that love. It’s about family, both blood and chosen, and the joy and the pain they bring us. It’s about truth and forgiveness and striving for those perfect moments that make the rest of it all worthwhile.
You know it must be about these things – you know there’s more to it than Olympia Dukakis saying things your ears can never unhear and a naked comedy bit your eyes can never unsee – but, somehow, the message of Cloudburst still sneaks up on you.
It comes in the quite moments, in the conversations between the punchlines, and it does so with such grace that you hardly know you’re being led. Then, you get to the last line, and realize what you’ve been a witness to all along, and all you can say is –
“Wow.”
I saw Cloudburst at the NC Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Find out more here -> Cloudburst