User reviews

Lymelife is the story of a family in Long Island's suburbia during the 1970's. This movie shows us how half truths and the exclusion of detail are in fact lies and even though we don't mean them to hurt they still do. The father (Alec Baldwin) is so enraptured by the suburbia lifestyle that he's completely forgotten that it's not money that makes you happy, but family. The mother who only wants the best for her children doesn't want to raise them in this judgmental place where she can't be herself. The brother, Jimmy, (Kieran Culkin) has a typical relationship with his father where he wants to be the exact opposite of him and does so by joining the army and running away. Rory Culkin does an exquisite job starring as Scott, the main character, who is the only one who is trying to put things into perspective for everyone else whilst going through puberty and fighting his insatiable love for the girl next door who sees him as a little brother. Although all of their problems seem trivial compared to their neighbor who has lyme disease that is like a constant acid trip and is ruining his life. All in all I would highly recommend seeing this movie because as depressing as I've made it sound it is in fact quite lifting and a great piece of cinema.

Lymelife is a low budget independent film that has come through the Sundance Lab. Although it was quickly shot with a very low budget you would not think it with its cast that includes Oscar winner, Timothy Hutton.

The film is set in Long Island of the late 1970s although the year is not specified. It focuses on Scott (Rory Culkin) a teenage dork, into Star Wars and gets bullied. He is attracted to Adrianna (Emma Roberts) who is maturing into womanhood and attracting male attention.

His older brother (Kieran Culkin) who has beefed up in the army takes care of the bullies but his arrival brings into open some family strain. Dad (Alec Baldwin) wants to hit the big time with real estate, he is a womaniser while their mom does not share the dream.

Adrianna's dad (Timothy Hutton) is struck down by Lyme's disease and life takes a downward spiral as he realises his wife is cheating and of course he is the one who goes with a shotgun to hunt for deer. Oh dear, this might not end well.

This is a coming of age drama from first time writer/directors. Some of the time setting is a bit shaky, The Falklands Conflict took place in 1982 and there was no danger of the USA being involved. Rory gives a warm performance of teenage angst and confusion ably supported by Emma Roberts and the older actors.

I suppose the ending is slightly signposted but its a good slice of life drama.

This is an extremely high caliber movie whose only flaw is improperly dated and unhistorical references to the Falkland War. The performances are superb by each and every cast member and by the ensemble as a whole. It is astonishing that such a film could be made in less than a month and for $ 1 1/2 million dollars. That being said, the quick production time and low budget should not keep anyone from seeing this very important film. It is not just about the 70's but about basic human relationships and characters and truths. The director and cast should all be proud of this fine accomplishment. I urge everyone who loves movies to see this one.

LYMELIFE kinda intrigued me for years because of the cast and the subject but was afraid that I would have hated it because it's considered a bit obscure. Yet when I saw it last September I found it ok, nothing more.

When it begins we see Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin) walking in the woods and risks to be shot by Charlie Bragg (Timothy Hutton) that was about to shoot a deer, and after a while Scott becomes involved with Charlie's daughter Adrianna (Emma Roberts). In the meanwhile there is an outbreak of the lyme disease that scares the town and when Charlie is diagnosed with the disease is unable to work and has to spend days doing nothing while his wife thinks he is at work and becomes more friendly towards Scott. In the meanwhile Mickey Bartlett (Alec Baldwin) will start to have something for Charlie's wife, but he will discover his mistake a bit too late...

I liked the performances. Rory Culkin and Emma Roberts gave very believable performances, and Timothy Hutton was good as the husband who has to avenge his wife's betrayal while dealing with his illness, and in the end he succedds. Alec Baldwin was good as always, even tho I disliked what he did towards Hutton's wife.

If there weren't too much embarassing situations the movie would have earned a higher score but, as it is, it's ok but nothing more.

Had the pleasure of seeing this at Toronto and Sundance. I'm a festival rat and do not usually comment on movies. But this film struck me in different ways on both viewings. The first time I was consumed in all of the performances, which are spectacular. The second time I was wrapped up in all of the symbolism. The reflection shots, the little fake houses, the spiritual references, the overall tone of the movie that was set by the director and his brother. Is this a perfect movie? It's as perfect a movie as you will find on the premiere festival circuit. And when I found out it was filmed on a tiny budget, I was even more impressed. It turns out to be a funny and moving story that makes you laugh a lot. The director is funny, the actors are all funny and the music is amazing. Every scene that had a song in it was completely amazing. Martin Scorsese is the producer of the film and the director is clearly a big fan. There's violence, emotion and a lot of humor. It's not about the mafia but it has a Sopranos feel to it. I can't put my finger on it, but it's there. To sum it up, it has some very heavy scenes but those scenes are peppered with hilarious moments. So it's never too dark or too heavy. It plays like a film from the 1960's or 70's. Heck of a job. I want to see more from this filmmaker.

I can't wait for my next three-Martini film! If Lymelife can be done in less than a month, let's have at least two more before year's end––the last positioned for awards season. Yes, I worry this remarkable film will be unheralded and forgotten in eight months. I can visualize every member of this excellent cast reading the script and beginning to drool. All this tight, little character-driven story needed was a cast that knew whereof it spoke and a director who could give that cast's instincts and improvisational abilities free rein. Obviously, the Martini brothers with a cathartic, autobiographical exercise in familial dysfunction said, "Hey, the Culkins will know where we're coming from!" And do they ever! The scenes between the brothers are heartbreaking in their awareness of fraternal love and filial disillusionment.

The sexual initiation scenes are tender, funny and soooo real. The floundering, faulty adults, right on the nose! This is Timothy Hutton's best work since Ordinary People.

The 1979 setting is subtly established by the scrupulously selected music and the vehicles of the time. The only effort to tie in current events in this post-Viet Nam war-weary era is an almost subliminal reference to the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran. And this is all so right, because the characters and relationships, which is what we're here for, are timeless.

The symbolism––right up to the real estate baron bearing the cross of a For Sale sign––hits just the right note. if you have a chance to see this film, go.

...but that does not necessarily mean Lymelife is bad. The movie is about dysfunctional, broken families and relationships, and I (and I bet many others who watched the movie) also come from a dysfunctional, broken family and had many bad relationships. The fact, that this movie was capable of building on that and making me feel even worse is something to celebrate. Most movies doesn't even come close to inciting any emotion whatsoever, but Lymelife did. Sure, it made me feel miserable, but that just goes to show this movie had what it takes to reach it's audience. That's great.

Aside from that, the movie itself is pretty average, with average actors, screenplay and story. For those who doesn't understand it, it could be dull and meaningless. But for those who did live through approximately the same s__t that's in Lymelife, they might just go home with a strange feeling...

I attended the World Premiere of "Lymelife" at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. This touching but occasionally disturbing coming-of-age story was, literally, a labor of brotherly love. Director Derick Martini and his brother Steven not only wrote the screenplay together but they also co-edited it. Adding to those responsibilities, Steven composed the music and was one of the producers.

Based on events in their own lives, the brothers Martini have crafted a story of love and denial, mystery and tragedy.

The film focuses on two families, the Bartletts and the Braggs. The adults here -- Alec Baldwin and Jill Hennessy as Micky and Brenda Bartlett, Timothy Hutton and Cynthia Nixon as Charlie and Melissa Bragg -- are woefully flawed and ill-equipped role models for their children -- Rory and Kieran Culkin as Scott and Jimmy Bartlett, Emma Roberts as Adrianna Bragg. When Scott and Adrianna begin to discover the joys of young love, the road down which they travel is as full of promise as the Long Island Rail Road tracks that carry the ever-present trains past their houses.

"Lymelife" has the classic, bona fide look and feel of a true American indie. The 70s soundtrack is a real crowd pleaser. Long Island's bucolic setting betrays the tension and deception that lies just beneath the surface of these dysfunctional families.

Photography is topnotch, and cinematographer Frank Godwin fills the film with long takes and tracking shots (Gus Van Sant fans will be pleased) which help build tension and allow the audience to stay in tune with the film's ebbs and flows. Many scenes without dialogue are among the most powerful as Martini allows Rory's face and eyes to say more than any script could (think "Mean Creek").

The entire ensemble cast turn in standout performances. Timothy Hutton and Cynthia Nixon are particularly impressive. But, most of all, Rory Culkin carries this film. His relationship with his brother offscreen translates onto the screen so well that it's hard to tell where the acting ends and the Culkins begin. In fact, Martini said he often left the camera rolling and didn't yell "cut," in order to capture their playfulness. If the interaction between the brothers felt authentic, it may be because much of what is seen on screen was improvised. That's why it seemed so real and painful, because it was.

Despite some dark themes, "Lymelife" has quite a bit of humor in it. Imagine a slightly lighter "American Beauty" or "Snow Angels." In fact, Culkin's relationship with Emma Roberts is, along with that of Michael Angarano and Olivia Thirlby in "Snow Angels," one of the the best depictions of first love and awkward sexual encounters I've ever seen.

Ironically, Martini's style is also quite similar to that of David Gordon Green, who directed "Snow Angels." He allows much of the action to come from the actors themselves as opposed to his own direction.

Despite the film's many twists and turns, "Lymelife" is ultimately a story of the wonders of discovery. More than anything, what we discover are the possibilities presented by youth.

The Toronto experience is unlike any other. First, Martini introduced the film. In fact, they delayed the screening as long as they could and he tried to vamp onstage for awhile since Kieran and Rory were held up in traffic. He eventually decided to roll the film, and just as he was about to turn over the mike and walk offstage "his boys" walked in. He didn't want to start it without them. So right from the start there was a bond between the filmmaker, cast, and audience. It was one of the festival's small venues so it was packed.

The exciting Q&A after the screening was truly a family affair with both the brothers Martini and Culkin in attendance. Very few people left as the credits rolled since the film leaves many points open to interpretation. Martini was exceptional. It was one of the best Q&As I've attended (and that numbers in the hundreds). He was upbeat, friendly, and willing to discuss a lot of the "behind the scenes" aspects. Many filmmakers are a bit shy onstage and reluctant to open up. He was not.

I chose "Lymelife" as one of my 5 Top Picks from this year's festival (out of 30 films). It also won the prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Discovery and is now making the rounds of the festival circuit. Screen Media picked up the film for distribution and it hits theaters on April 8, 2009.

It's the late 70's Long Island. Lyme disease is a new discovery. Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin) lives with his father Mickey (Alec Baldwin) and Brenda (Jill Hennessy). He longs for his best friend Adrianna Bragg (Emma Roberts). She lives with her parents Charlie (Timothy Hutton) and Melissa (Cynthia Nixon). Jobless Charlie suffers from Lyme disease and is hiding in the basement. Melissa and Mickey are struggling to sell his real estate project called Bartlettown. Scott is picked on by the school bully. Scott's volatile older brother Jimmy (Kieran Culkin) comes home from the Army and beats up the bully for him.

It's a well-acted indie of familiar suburban family dysfunction. The Culkin brothers are terrific. Emma Roberts is compelling. The adults in the movie don't take a backseat to the kids. There isn't anything completely new but it is done confidently. This movie needs some explosiveness to get to the next level.

I frankly don't get it. What kind of taste, intelligence, knowledge of life, has the people that tell us it's a masterpiece?? I stopped seeing it about after 10 minutes run. I couldn't stand the look of those two (brothers?), the stupid script, the aging Baldwin... I'm quite disoriented by all these fabulous eulogies. Do they love anything that comes out of Hollywood automatically??

It doesn't matter that we see all the incongruence about mentioning things that didn't appeared until ten years or more later?? Are people that ignorant about the recent past?? They don't care if the historical period is reported inaccurately?? Every situation is so trivial, we have seen them a trillion times before. What was funny about the dialog?? Uff..., I have so many question that I better stop here because I don't give two hoots about this movie.

"You can take the girl outta Queens, am I right?" Mickey Bartlett (Alec Baldwin as Mickey Bartlett)

Dysfunctional families as a theme reached its apotheosis ten years ago in Sam Mendes' American Beauty, a rich blend of realism and fancy involving real estate, coming of age, and infidelity. Just about the same territory is covered in Derick Martini's Lymelife, only this time the metaphors seem forced, the characters less developed, and the denouement less ambiguous.

Lymelife, however, is a quality addition to the deconstruction of the American dream. It's 1979 America, and Mickey Bartlett (Alec Baldwin) has a burgeoning business developing upscale homes on Long Island. His family life is in decline as witnessed by 15 year old central character Jimmy Bartlett (Kieran Culkin), the only one whose prospects with babe next door, Adrianna Bragg (Emma Roberts), get better with each of his endearing humiliations. Mickey is a philanderer (he is played by Baldwin, after all), a spendthrift, and family neglecter, all of which must be addressed by the film's ambitious albeit incomplete plot.

The story moves gently but inexorably to a strong conclusion, where things seem to settle into their appointed fates, more an affirmation that American life between here and American Beauty hasn't changed much with its defeats and victories abundant. While Lymelife (a reference to the disease present in Long Island and a cumbersome metaphor) gains no new insights about our materialism and sexual exploration, it does present a true look at a time when this American life might have been more complicated than it is now.

Derick Martini's film 'Lymelife' is a fairly conventional, low key tale of growing up in a dysfunctional, suburban family on Long Island. It features a very typical performance from Alex Baldwin, a painfully convincing teenage sex scene and a surprising ending that shies away from sentimentality but which left in two minds: in some ways, the mood of the whole film sits awkwardly between heartwarming and unbearable awfulness, and perhaps there was no single conclusion that might have made it all seem right. Indeed, the better stuff in this movie comes when the subject is less black, more ordinary; elsewhere, it can be hard to watch.

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.

I can only presume that the title "Lymelife" is a contrived pun on the word "limelight" and on the fact that an outbreak of Lyme disease plays a part in the plot. The film is a "coming-of-age" drama set on the Long Island of 1979. (It is sometimes described as a "comedy", although there was little about it which struck me as comic). The main character is fifteen-year-old Scott Bartlett, and the film charts the tangled web of relationships between the Bartletts and their neighbours the Braggs. Essentially, Scott's mother Brenda is having an affair with next-door-neighbour Charlie Bragg, while his father Mickey is having an affair with Charlie's wife Melissa. Meanwhile, Scott is dating the Braggs' daughter Adrianna. There should really be something in Leviticus to cover this situation. ("Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of the woman whose father has uncovered thy mother's nakedness and whose mother has uncovered thy father's nakedness……").

Youth can be a time of joy, excitement and enthusiasm, but the film-makers, the brothers Derick and Steven Martini, like many makers of similar dramas, seem less interested in these aspects of life than in hormonally-driven teenage angst. The film is said to be autobiographical, but as the Martinis would only have been four and one years old in 1979 they presumably projected their own teenage experiences backward in time from the early nineties to the late seventies. Part of the problem lies with Rory Culkin, younger brother of Macaulay, as Scott, who seems to be perpetually shrouded in gloom and misery. (Another Culkin brother, Kieran, also appears as Scott's older brother Jimmy). It doesn't help that Culkin was actually twenty when the film was made, five years older than the character he portrays. The best of the adults is probably Alec Baldwin as Mickey, but even he cannot arouse much interest.

Independently produced "coming-of-age" dramas are not all bad- indeed, there have been some excellent examples. For every "Ordinary People" or "Gregory's Girl", however, there are several dreary sagas, and it is into this latter category that "Lymelife" falls. (Timothy Hutton, the star of "Ordinary People", appears here as Charlie). The film seems to have been made primarily for connoisseurs of suburban misery. 4/10

Derick Martini's direction here is adequate and the actors pour their hearts in some of the roles but the story the Martini brothers came up with fails to compel. As a result, this is just yet another bland indie entry mixing social criticism and coming of age stories.

The story is down to earth but lacks visceral qualities and is rather forgettable. Character development is nowhere to be seen. It's even worse as far as the story is concerned. This one brings nothing new despite being well-made.

One would be better off picking an old classic such as The Ice Storm in this case.