The Coolidge Corner Theatre

Two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn gives a heartfelt and riotously funny performance as Jean Dwight, a brassy would-be comedienne and the larger-than-life matriarch of a rather unusual family. Once a rising star in the '70s, Jean is still struggling to catch another shot at hitting the big time, picking up odd gigs doing stand-up at night while slinging hash (and bawdy jokes) at a cafeteria by day. Meanwhile at home, Jean's two sons, Tim and his intellectually disabled brother Mark, inhabit a very "non-traditional" household where chaos is the norm and their mum's enormous personality takes center stage -- leaving little room for anybody else, including the boys' well-meaning but absent father and most of all, Tim's beautiful new girlfriend, Jill. Struggling to come to terms with her son's inevitable coming of age, Jean's antics threaten to break up the young couple and sets the entire of the family on a comical roller coaster of dysfunction.

dir. Cherie Nowlan, with Brenda Blethyn, Khan Chittenden, Emma Booth, and Richard Wilson, 1h45m