''Cinema Verite'' is a 2011

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

drama film directed by

Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini Shari Springer Berman (born July 13, 1963) and Robert Pulcini (born August 24, 1964) are an American team of filmmakers. Biographies Both Springer Berman and Pulcini were born in New York City, New York, New York (state), New York. Springer Be ...

. The film's main

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...

starred Diane Lane,

Tim Robbins Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film '' The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and Jacob Singer in '' Jacob's Ladder'' (1990), as well as winning an Academy ...

James Gandolfini James John Gandolfini (; September 18, 1961June 19, 2013) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Tony Soprano, the Italian-American American Mafia, Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007 ...

and Patrick Fugit. The film follows a fictionalized account of the production of '' An American Family'', a 1973 PBS documentary television series that is said to be one of the earliest examples of the

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

genre. Principal photography was completed in Southern California. The film premiered on April 23, 2011.

Plot synopsis

The film begins in 1971 with Craig Gilbert (James Gandolfini) discussing with Pat Loud (Diane Lane) the idea of a documentary series that would concern her family's day-to-day lives in Santa Barbara, CA. Pat considers the proposal and accepts, amidst her son Lance (Thomas Dekker) moving to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Pat's husband Bill (Tim Robbins) travels often away on business, leaving his wife alone to care for their five children. The crew (Patrick Fugit, Shanna Collins) moves in with the Louds and begins to document them. Relations between Pat and Bill grow frayed due to his time away and the stress of the TV show's production. Gilbert tells Pat of his suspicions surrounding Bill's trips away, giving fairly strong evidence that he is cheating on her. The crew fights with Gilbert about his documentary technique, as he makes them film many personal moments. After surreptitiously duplicating the keys to Bill's office, Pat makes a late night trip to the office and discovers documents that confirm he is cheating on Pat with two other women, resulting in Pat's preparations to file for a divorce. Angry, she tells Gilbert to have cameras there when she tells Bill, wanting "his bimbos to see it, the whole world to see it." Against her wishes, he films Pat's conversation with her brother and his wife. Pat begins to regret her decision to let Gilbert film the break up, and tries to get one of her sons to tell him while driving Bill home instead. He, however, does not work up the courage to do this, and Pat kicks Bill out of her home on camera. The film cuts to one year later, when ''An American Family'' is experiencing its premiere. The show airs to strong television ratings but much criticism of members of the family, in particular Pat for how she came off on camera and Lance for his

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

. The family then gets together to "fight back", addressing their critics by appearing on many talk shows. Title cards at film's end offer updates for each Loud family member. Lance died of

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

-related hepatitis in 2001; his last wish for his parents was to cohabitate. They currently live together in Los Angeles.

Cast

* Diane Lane as Pat Loud *

as Bill Loud *

as Craig Gilbert *

Kathleen Quinlan Kathleen Denise Quinlan (born November 19, 1954) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1977 film of the novel ''I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (film), I Never Promised ...

as Mary * Thomas Dekker as

Lance Loud Alanson Russell "Lance" Loud (June 26, 1951 – December 22, 2001) was an American television personality, magazine columnist, and new wave rock-n-roll performer. Loud is best known for his 1973 appearance in '' An American Family'', a pione ...

* Patrick Fugit as Alan Raymond * Shanna Collins as Susan Raymond *

Willam Belli Willam Belli (, born June 30, 1982), mononymously known as Willam, is an American drag queen, actor, singer-songwriter, reality television personality, author, and YouTuber. Willam came to prominence as a contestant on the RuPaul's Drag Race sea ...

as Candy Darling * Lolita Davidovich as Valerie * Kyle Riabko as Jackie Curtis * Kaitlyn Dever as Michelle Loud *

Nick Eversman Nicholas Eversman (born February 15, 1986) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Michael Winstone on the ABC mystery drama ''Missing (2012 TV series), Missing'' and Liam Jones II on the ABC fantasy adventure drama ''Once Upon a Time (T ...

as Grant Loud * Johnny Simmons as Kevin Loud * Caitlin Custer as Delilah Loud * Jake Richardson as Tommy Goodwin

Production

Principal photography was completed primarily in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. The film is presented in chapters, with chapter titles such as ''The Chelsea'' and ''The Battle for the Camera Begins''. When the chapter titles are shown, short clips from the original 1973 documentary are shown alongside in split screen format.

Critical reception

''Cinema Verite'' met with a positive reception from television critics. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film received a "generally positive" score of 74 out of 100, based on 23 reviews.

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* * {{GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series 2011 drama films 2011 television films 2011 films American LGBTQ-related films Films about television Films based on television series Films directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini Films with screenplays by David Seltzer Films shot in California HBO Films films LGBTQ-related films based on actual events Films scored by Rolfe Kent 2011 LGBTQ-related films American drama television films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films