Cloudburst
Director: Thom Fitzgerald
Writer: Thom Fitzgerald
Cast: Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker, Ryan Doucette, Kristin Booth, Jeremy Akerman
Part of: identities Festival – it will be shown again tonight (June 16)!

Plot:
Stella (Olympia Dukakis) and Dot (Brenda Fricker) have been together for over 30 years, when Dot’s granddaughter Molly (Krising Booth) decides that it would be best for Dot to move to an old people’s home. Despite Stella’s protestations, she goes through with that plan. So Stella decides to break Dot out and run away with her to finally make their relationship official and get married in Canada.

Cloudburst was so very nice. And touching. And laugh out loud funny. There’s only one question that remains: why didn’t Olympia Dukakis win all of the awards?

Has there ever been a cuter couple than Stella and Dot? I doubt it. They just made so much sense. They are amazingly sweet together, even if in a very foul-mouthed way. Seriously, I do like my curses as well and you will definitely hear me say fuck and/or shit or something like it several times a day, but dammit if Stella didn’t beat all the records. It was, quite frankly, amazing, even if not always in good taste.

But the cursing wasn’t what dominated the film, though it certainly was a big part of the sense of humor. What actually dominated the film was Olympia Dukakis and her astonishing performance. She was absolutely fantastic and hit every not just right. And you haven’t seen a heist movie until you’ve seen her donning a pink night gown and break into an old people’s home.

I also really liked the subplot with Prentice (Ryan Doucette). I thought that his family life was a really nice contrast to what Stella and Dot have. What didn’t work for me that well was Molly – I thought that she got off too easy. The ending generally was not so much my thing, though it wasn’t that bad. And at least we got to see Prentice’ awesome choreography.

Generally though I just really enjoyed the film and was rather sad that it was so short. I would have loved to spend more time with Dot and Stella and Prentice.

Summarising: see it and laugh.