Moby Dick Day – PEEPLES

Tina Gordon Chism

I couldn’t find a foodie reference for my title on this post; so I used writer/director Tina Gordon Chism’s fake holiday, because she’s right, rather than have the character of Grace (Kerry Washington) go to visit with her family in Sag Harbor for 4th of July or Memorial Day a made up celebration like Moby Dick Day sounds funnier. (by the way, Tina is effervescent in this Trailer Addict interview).

There’s a lot that sounds funny in this movie about a wealthy African American family “The Black Kennedy’s” who, lead by patriarch Virgil Peeples (David Alan Grier), look perfect from the outside until the arrival of an unexpected guest, Grace’s boyfriend Wade (Craig Robinson) unintentionally begins to unravel family skeletons left and right.

The problem for me is I don’t like obvious humor. There are a few broad comedies I enjoy (click for T&T postsBridesmaids, Ted & Hall Pass), but for the most part, I’m not big on movies that are written like they should have a laugh track.  I like movies with more subtle or quirky off the wall humor.  I like life situations that really shouldn’t be funny, but somehow in the face of it all, there’s nothing to do but laugh to keep from crying.

I gotta say, the audience at this screening, loved the movie.  Much laughter all around.  I admit to cracking up at one scene which featured (Malcolm Barrett) Wade’s brother, a doll doctor who also later crashes the Peeples family vacation, but is welcomed despite his connection to the undesirable Wade, all because he unknowingly borrowed a sweater with the insignia of Virgil’s fraternity.  This isn’t the part that gave me a chuckle, but I won’t give away the scene that did.

On the whole the movie is no more or less entertaining than The Big Wedding (click for T &T post), yet in many ways I feel the Peeples family, which includes notable actors S. Epatha Merkerson, Melvin Van Peebles, Tyler James Williams (Everybody Hates Chris) and Diahann Carroll  is more endearing.

Tinsel & Tine gave away passes to this screening of Peeples, which included a Q & A with Comedian Craig Robinson (The Office), hosted by WDAS beloved DJ Patty Jackson.  If you happen to be reading this and were one of the people who got passes through T &T would you please give a shout out in the comment section!

I video taped the Q &A, but as usual it’s a little dark.  I invested in a portable, battery operated, miniature tripod lamp (Burro Light) to remedy this frequent issue, but alas, it gave off about as much light as a single firefly in a jar.

Still, Here’s part 1 of 2 videos below:

Here’s some highlights:

Philly Film Blog