Film Review: Feast of The Seven Fishes Keeps You Well-Fed
For Italian American families the The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a tradition that honors Italy’s history of abundance and poverty as much as Jesus/God’s dual lives of simultaneous power and persecution. Similar to many family, cultural tradition based off of religion, we cannot seem to shake themes of martyrdom. In essence, thank you God for seeing me through safely, but I rally would have preferred that tornado not land on my house. Amen! Eat Up! It is in this deranged dynamic that Feast of The Seven Fishes finds its warmth, especially in its lead Skylar Gisondo’s Tony.
Directed and written by Robert Tinnell, Feast of Seven Fishes centers around the Oliverio family readying for this Christmas Eve tradition. By all means, the movie steam-rolls into both romantic and plot-lined cliches like, Tony not wanting to be an artist and not run the family, butcher shop or falling for a “good girl”, Addison Timlin’s Katie, while his alternative love interest, the “bad girl,”(Madison Iseman’s Beth, lurks with her bag of bad choices and horrible choices. More importantly, either is not a “fit” for this Italian family or perfect Tony. Yet, I am here for it!
Feast Of The Seven Fishes (2019) – Official Trailer (HD)
If you have enough heart to back your bag of cliches then why not?!
A cliche is still spiritually edible if it feeds the audience with glee, laughter, understanding, and hope, which Tinnell and company do. Each cast member adds emotional nuance to his predictive this storyline can get, and help to show Tinnell’s direction and writing embrace the crystal road to happy endings. What is wrong with glorifying a small town, a humble family, and seeing their typical, cinematic journey into accepting their younger generation’s choices in future and love? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! This is especially true because Gisondo always adds a subtle sweetness to his characters that make you pull for him.
While someone could call Tony a coward for not standing up to his family and fighting for his dreams, you understand that he loves and respects these people enough to contemplate whether he can respect himself more. It may not seem like a “Sophie’s Choice,” either love my family or love myself/ dreams, but the reason this dramedy fulfills certain, “coming of age” tropes is that it shows how hard it is to stand up to the people that taught you to stand. Between Lynn Cohen’s hilariously judgmental/ wise “Nonnie” and crazy uncles and dads in the form of Johnny (Paul Ben-Victor) Carmine (Ray Abruzzo), and Frankie (Joe Pantoliano), Tony’s meek nature is not easily busting with voice. Thus, the “coming of age” aspect is not just sexual in this film as much soulful.
Yes, Tony is caught between two gals, and fellow friends like, Josh Helman’s Juke, add to the rom-com space of sexual/ romantic mishaps and misunderstandings. Helman is adorably sweet, and, like Tony, contrasts the idea that 80’s men were all about greed. Sorry Wall Street! Thus, you grin and glaze through this film because Feast of The Seven Fishes focuses on family, hometowns, and the eagerness to be and know you are loved by somebody, which is at the heart of the human experience, especially around Christmas. Feast of The Seven Fishes Is Out In Theaters And Digital.
