This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

So much average

best movie i've ever seen.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Described in one publicity tag as "a dark comedy," I am not sure whether Derek Martini's intense little film lives up to that description. Set in Long Island, it focuses on a teenage protagonist Scott (Rory Culkin), who not only learns something about his family, but acquires new knowledge about those closest to him, especially his childhood friend Adrianna (Emma Roberts), whom he has known ever since he was eight years old.Lyme's Disease is transmitted to human beings through infected blacklegged ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headaches and skin rash. In Martini's film the disease functions as a kind of metaphor for the disease affecting everyone around Scott; his father Mickey (Alec Baldwin) conducts a clandestine affair with Adrianna's mother Melissa (Cynthia Nixon), while his mother appears not to notice; his brother Jimmy (Kieran Culkin) has gone off to military service as a means of escaping from his father; while Adrianna appears to be going out with older boys at his high school. In this capitalist-oriented, meritocratic world, where Mickey believes that becoming a millionaire is a sign of 'success,' no one appears particularly interested in anyone around them.Melissa's husband Charlie (Timothy Hutton) actually suffers from the disease, but nonetheless lives a life as false as anyone else's. While pretending to go to the city each day to find a job, he actually incarcerates himself away in the bowels of his home doing drawings.Set in the late Seventies, LYMELIFE offers an interesting critique of American lifestyles at that time; the obsession with money, masculinity and self-assertion that creates an alienated world. There are some highly suggestive groupings: Scott and Adrianna are shown standing on either side of a railway line; they cannot seem to cross the line to meet together, but instead wait for a train to come past, remarking as they do so that it's always possible to hear a train anywhere in Long Island. At the end of the film, they are shown sitting together in a school bus; they do not speak for a long time, until Adrianna relents and takes Scott's hand. At least the youngsters are making tentative steps to create a less alienating world.Sometimes the film makes use of rather obvious symbolism to prove its point: a family row is accompanied by the sound of Sinatra singing a love-song on the soundtrack; while there are several point of view shots of Charlie looking out through a barred upper window at an (imaginary) deer grazing immediately in front of his house. Yet the action as a whole is redeemed by two strong central characterizations: Rory Culkin is especially good as the teenager pretending to be a strongman as he stands in front of the mirror, while Roberts proves herself to be a fundamentally generous soul in a sequence immediately following Scott's confirmation ceremony, when she swallows her pride and agrees to be his friend once more.

Like many US indie films, there's real sense of the extraordinary coming through from the very ordinary, here, with Lymelife.Throughout, there was a real sense of odd detachment about it, especially in the scenes with the sufferer of the disease (Lymes) in question, Timothy Hutton, who keeps seeing a deer from his sick bed and then goes off out into the winter landscape to hunt it down, with a rifle....The film itself was on late on BBC2 and I wish now that I'd been more alert to appreciate it, but what I did, is certainly memorable enough. Like Ang Lee's excellent The Ice Storm (set in the same 1970's) and in commuter belt Long Island, it's a gritty and often unsettlingly difficult to watch relationship drama. The family politics go haywire as father Alec Baldwin has an affair, which is one story and the other, that other reviewers have touched on, is of Rory Culkin finding his sexuality amongst this upset and upheaval.Apart from the often cringe-inducing 'fashions' and hairstyles, it is probably his touching and nuanced performance as he fumbles with finding his first sexual experience that is the most memorable. Against the backdrop of Baldwin's often self righteous shouting rants, you can't but feel for him and his vulnerability and innocence.As always, buying yet another DVD to view a film properly is offset against cash, so I might have to wait for it to reappear on TV somewhere before I can be reacquainted. I feel that it has the capabilities of being a very fine film, if offbeat and well worth taking a second look at. Intrigued!

Surprisingly this film went too far under my radar in 2009. I recently had the chance to see it and it is quite possibly one of the best coming of age films since "Stand By Me". I see lots and lots of movies. It is my favorite thing to do. I am usually pretty hard on them, but I was hypnotized by the general flow of Lymelife. It is not revolutionary or gimmicky like a lot of "indie" films. It's pretty straight forward and brutally honest. It deal with life, divorce, fist time sex, bullying, transference of parental anxieties onto children. An extremely smart script and a more impressive directorial debut by Derick Martini, who wrote the script. The performances are razor sharp all around and it really stamps that Martini has a distinct and unique voice all his own. I have "Hick", his follow up on my list and will be watching it shortly. Overlooked performance of 2009? Timothy Hutton as the cuckoled husband to Cynthia Nixon. Oscar worthy.Edit: I have now seen Martini's Hick and note that "Lymelife" is the superior of the two. Hick has its merits and is moving at times, but the script is not as good as "Lymelife". It's worth watching for the acting though.

Life in suburbia carries some risks. Not everything turns out to be as expected, in spite of the ideal setting of the new area. Take the Bartletts, of Long Island, for example. They have gone from Queens into an undisclosed location of the "island", as it is known by its inhabitants. We meet Mickey and Brenda, as well as Scott, their teenager son. They have another son, Jim, who has joined the armed forces and has undergone basic training. It is the last year of the 1970s decade. By all indications, the family should be enjoying their good fortune, but in reality they seem to be falling apart. The story is seen through Scott's eyes.Mickey Bartlett, the father, is developing an area for new upscale homes. His assistant happens to be Melissa Bragg, his next door neighbor. Melissa's husband Charlie, has been suffering from Lyme disease, a debilitating condition that has made him unable to work. The Braggs have a daughter, Adrianna, who is friendly with Scott, even attending the same high school as him. Unknown to everyone is the affair Mickey has been having with Melissa, something that Charlie has kept to himself and Adrianna and Scott learn, the hard way.When Jim, the eldest son, turns up for a Thanksgiving celebration, things take an unexpected turn. Scott, who is bullied at the school, reveals the confrontation with his tormentor. Jim goes to defend his brother, beating the other boy. Brenda ruins the turkey by burning it and the family ends up eating TV dinners. When Brenda goes to Charlie's house overhears the passionate encounter between her husband and Melissa, something that serves her to ask Mickey to get out of her life.Adrianna, a popular girl in school, likes one of the jocks. Scott, secretly in love with her, can only look. As the break between the Bartletts become real, Adrianna gets closer to Scott, in spite of his telling another boy he has been intimate with the girl. Adrianna reveals she is a virgin, but she is willing to try to remedy that condition with Scott. Charlie, who has been seen throughout the story walking the woods in search of the deer that have created the condition he finds himself in, decides to go after one deer by taking his rifle. Unfortunately, his action will have tragic consequences.A terrific film by Derick Martini, who together with his brother Steven wrote the screenplay. There are aspects of the story that kept reminding this viewer of Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm", although there are two different situations completely. The beauty of the story is that one can understand how each family got to the situation we are asked to witness. There must be a lot of happy families in suburbia, but for movie purposes, that happiness is only a myth, or so it appears to be the case. Of course, fulfilled families do not make good movies.Rory Culkin makes an outstanding appearance as Scott, the sad teenager who sees the disintegration of his home life. There are never wrong moments for this actor through the film. Alec Baldwin is also amazing with his crude Mickey Bartlett, a self made man on the brink of becoming a millionaire with his real estate project. Timothy Hutton's complex take on Charlie is equally fine. The other principals, Emma Roberts, Jill Hennessy, Cynthia Nixon and Kieran Culkin give good performances.Frank Godwin's cinematography gets us a feeling of being in a place that on all appearances seem great, but it is somewhat hard to understand. Steve Martini is credited as the composer of the original music heard in the film. It is ironic a film about Long Island was actually shot in New Jersey!