Say Uncle (film)

Paul (Peter Paige), a childlike artist, becomes upset when his godson's family moves from Oregon to Japan. He tries to compensate for his feeling of loss with visits to the neighborhood playground. Paul's best friend, Russell (Anthony Clark), tries to warn him what people might think if they see him hanging around their kids, but Paul doesn't quite see it that way. It isn't long before a suspicious local mom, Maggie (Kathy Najimy), launches a crusade against the naïve Paul, with an army of furious parents in tow. ==Cast==

• Peter Paige as Paul Johnson • Kathy Najimy as Maggie Butler • Anthony Clark as Russell Trotter • Melanie Lynskey as Susan • Gabrielle Union as Elise Carter • Lisa Edelstein as Sarah Faber • Jim Ortlieb as David Berman • Robert Blanche as Phil ==Production==

Casting Kathy Najimy was the first actor that Paige reached out to. He said of her casting, "I loved her from Sister Act [etc.] but it was her New York theatre work [that] made me know that she would understand the darker undertones of the piece and the resonance that it was meant to have". Paige chose to shoot on Super 16 mm: "I wanted the grain because of the kind of movie it is. It's heightened reality". ==Release and reception==

After premiering at Outfest on July 10, 2005, and screening at various other festivals that year, the film was distributed by TLA Releasing on a theater-by-theater basis. It opened in Los Angeles on June 23, 2006, followed by New York on June 30, 2006. It was released on DVD in September that same year. Say Uncle received a mixed reception, with many critics finding fault with its tone. Writing for The New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis said, "[the film] may be trying to address gay persecution and social paranoia, but it mostly comes off as a study of arrested development. The movie's most laudable gamble is its refusal to make [the characters] sympathetic, but the moral subtleties are obscured by a one-dimensional script and a protagonist as self-centered and lacking in expression as a fetus. Viewed through Paul's eyes, the complex threads of homophobia are impossible to untangle". In a more positive appraisal, the Los Angeles Times called it "a comedy of the darkly absurd", describing Najimy as "at once hilarious and scary", while saying of Paige, "[he] reveals that he is not only a fearless actor but a skilled and thoughtful [filmmaker]. Say Uncle is a notably risk-taking first feature". ==Notes==