The new social comedy "Landline," opening Friday, is a real treat for fans of smart family dramedies, films that are neither "Father Knows Best" retreads, clueless dad cliches, nor mom-coping-with-womanizing-hubby sagas.
As the title suggests, the action is set in 1995. The film focuses on the taffy-pull ties between two strong-willed teen sisters from an upscale Italian-Jewish clan. Older sis Dana (Jenny Slate) is newly engaged while still undergoing her own internal struggles about fidelity vs. the last gasp of relationship freedom. Younger sis Ali (Abby Quinn) is a wild girl with a no-holds-barred approach to her dating choices.
Gillian Robespierre ("Obvious Child"), with co-writer Elisabeth Holm, helms this tale of sisters coming of age. The girls discover their dad's affair. It turns out that Pop (John Turturro) is not the only member of this Manhattan clan cheating on their marriage vows.
Everyone still smokes indoors, no one has a cell phone, and the Jacobs mostly connect through lying, cheating and hibachi. Without indulging in too much pre-9/11 nostalgia, the filmmakers have fun with a Big Apple adolescent playground where audio cassettes are the musical currency, and mix tapes lure a favorite someone onto your musical planet. FM dance-music radio stations, with their appeal to the burgeoning gay and minority disco crowd, are a big deal, while baby boomers are still recovering from the loss of their AM-radio trainer wheels.
"Landline" has the offbeat spirit of Coen Bros. films, and benefits from an astonishing supporting cast, many with roots in indie film or quality narrative TV. Mom is Edie Falco ("The Sopranos"), and the boyfriends are given spirited turns from Jay Duplass ("The Puffy Chair") and Finn Wittrock ("The Big Short"). With a dab of techno irony, "Landline" is an Amazon Studios release, R-rated for sex, language and drug use.