Is Sarasota ready for more Grumpy Old Men? Sophia Loren at a Sarasota event announced she would produce and star in a reboot of the classic film reimagined as a seaside series set to stream on Netflix starting in April. “This film was the most rewarding of my career, and I’m delighted to bring it life again here,” said Loren, who accepted a cinema Legend award Thursday night from the Sarasota Film Festival.

But what of the actual men in the film? Of course, regular screen partners Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau have passed, but modern technology erases the need to recast. Turning to the animation students at Ringing College of Art and Design, the folks that made such a realistic depiction of Amy Pohler in Pixar’s Inside Out that many mistook it for a live action cameo, recreated versions of The Odd Couple stars have already been rendered and are ready to pout anew.

Sarasota County, a region that boasts a reputation both as a retirement haven and growing film community, seemed the perfect region to tell the tale of aged glory-seekers chasing women and cutting bait. Of course, viewers may note Loren actually appeared in the sequel Grumpier Old Men, while Ann-Margret played a major female role in both the original and the sequel. So will the Canadian songstress also make an appearance in the new series? Anything is possible, Loren said. “I’ve always thought a project was better when it could feature Two Women,” she said. 

Photo by Jacob Ogles: Sophia Loren alongside animated rendering of a Grumpier Old Man.

For our REAL coverage of the Sarasota Film Festival, check out SRQBacklot.com

A local Sarasota man accidentally submitted a collection of home videos to the Sarasota Film Festival when he mistook SFF offices for those of the South Florida Film company. Depositing near 20 years of private and at times horribly embarrassing family footage via three cardboard boxes of poorly labeled VHS cassettes, the man reported surprise at hearing of his acceptance into this year’s festival program.

“I kinda just figured they’d put them on DVD for me,” said 64-year-old Howard Kelvin, the retired Hewlett-Packard printer technician who inadvertently shattered the trust of friends and family by revealing their most intimate moments to the world. Still, Kelvin says he can see the bright side. “I hadn’t spoken to my daughter in going on 12 years,” he said. “But she called this morning and she had a whole lot to say.”

Clocking in at just under four hours, the film chronicles the slow collapse of an American family, punctuated by regular scenes of a drunken Kelvin repeatedly ruining Christmas and disappointing those around him.

Early screenings have divided critics, with many expressing disappointment at the film’s “amateur direction” and “choppy, at times nonsensical editing.” Kelvin’s life as a husband and father received the harshest criticism, with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone calling the lead’s performance “both the least convincing and most offensive portrayal of blue collar America since Larry The Cable Guy.” Others were either less astute or more visually impaired, with Pitchfork Media dubbing Kelvin’s debut a hallmark of the alternate found footage genre and praising the film for its “bold use of near-constant male nudity as an innovative approach to the ever-fluxed intersectionality of life, art and sex through a lens of male impotence.”

“I’m not sure that’s what I was going for, but that's OK,” said Kelvin, reprising a sad and confused smile reminiscent of the film’s ostensible climax, when Kelvin’s wife reveals that she’s leaving him as her new fiancée records. Said Kelvin, relinquishing his last shred of dignity, “I still want my DVDs." 

For our REAL coverage of the Sarasota Film Festival, check out SRQBacklot.com

Award-winning documentarians Amy Geller and Allie Humenuk blend the deeply personal and undeniably political with their latest documentary film, The Guys Next Door, exploring the lives of a gay couple raising two daughters and the married mother of three who served as the surrogate mother, bringing both families together. Filmed over the course of four years, Geller and Humenuk put a human face to the national discussion on gay marriage and gay parenting, all while raising questions about the definition of family in the modern age. An official selection of the Sarasota Film Festival, The Guys Next Door enjoys its world premiere this weekend.

First hearing about the story and Rachel Segall’s offer, at the age of 41 and with children of her own, to serve twice as surrogate mother for her friend Erick Mercer and his partner Sandro Sechi, Geller envisioned a documentary about surrogacy. Humenuk said no. “I’m not as interested in films about topics,” she explained. “I like films about people, and topics come out through that.” She agreed to help film early footage to get the project started and the pair headed to New York, where Eric and Sandro lived with their first daughter, Rachel Maria.

Segall was visiting along with her children, eight months pregnant with who would be Eric and Sandro’s second daughter, Eleonora. “And when we walked into the apartment and saw their dynamic, there was something there that was incredibly rich,” said Humenuk. The two families interacted as one, with an energy, an openness and “a sense of play,” said Humenuk. “I looked at [Geller] and said, ‘If you want to jump off a cliff with me and do a character-driven film, let’s do it.’”

Filming on and off in the years following, the duo caught all the big moments, such as Eleonora’s birth and the families’ initial reactions, “but some of the richest stuff comes out of just daily life activity,” said Humenuk. “The small tensions and moments of humor.” The hard part was knowing when to stop filming, knowing when they had the story they needed. For her part, Humenuk says she could have filmed the family for years more. “But there’s a lot going on right now in the world around gay marriage, gay parenting and surrogacy and it’s a ripe moment to get this story out there,” she said. “It’s really a positive portrait of what a gay family can look like, and if people can see some of themselves in this family then it might be able to at least get people thinking differently about gay families.”

Celebrating its world premiere this weekend at the Sarasota Film Festival, The Guys Next Door screens Saturday, Apr. 2, at 5:45pm with the cast and filmmakers in attendance, and then again Monday, Apr. 4, at 9:15pm. 

Pictured from left to right: Sandro Sechi, Rachel Segall and Erick Mercer.

SRQ Backlot

Meat lovers will savor this recipe from JR’s Old Packinghouse Café, where JR Garraus slow-cooks some tender dishes. Try this in your home crockpot or head to the Sarasota restaurant. 

Ropa Vieja

Ingredients: 2 pounds top round beef; 2 Tbsp. olive oil; 2 onions, chopped; 2 colored peppers, chopped; 2 Tbsp. garlic, diced; 1 Tbsp. cumin; 1 bay leaf; 1 6-oz. can diced tomato; 1 small can tomato paste; 1 cup saved beef cooking liquid (broth); 1 cup beef base; 1 tsp. complete seasoning; 1 cup dry white wine; 1 bunch cilantro- chopped (for garnish).

Place top round in crock pot.  Cover with water. Cook until tender, approx. 4-6 hours.  Shred cooked  beef. Save 1 cup cooking liquid.  Set aside. 

Place olive oil in dutch oven over med. high heat.  Add onion and pepper.  Cook until soft.  Add garlic, bay leaf, cumin, diced tomato and tomato paste. 

Mix well.  Add beef, cooking liquid and remaining ingredients.  Bring to a simmer and let cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Garnish with cilantro and serve with black beans, rice and garlic toast. 

JR’s Old Packinghouse Café

Forty Carrots Family Center launched its newly designed website, built in collaboration with CityMind Group and Be Creative Studios. The website is designed to be easier to navigate and more functional. Visitors now have expanded capabilities to register for classes online, increased information about the expanded child and family therapy program, access to events and volunteer opportunities, as well as the ability to donate directly online. The layout includes a new blog where parents can find useful information.  

Forty Carrots Family Center

With a crowd of 5,441 for the final home game of Orioles Spring Training at Ed Smith Stadium in 2016, the Baltimore Orioles drew a total of 119,029 fans for 16 home games in Sarasota this season, including a club record 11 home sellouts. This marks the second-highest attendance for an Orioles Spring Training in franchise history, the club said. Since moving its Major League operations to Sarasota, 765,313 fans have enjoyed Orioles Spring Training baseball at Ed Smith Stadium. Average per game attendance this season was 7,439. 

Baltimore Orioles

Goodwill Ambassador and businessman Darrell Turner of Turner Tree and Landscape has created a garden at Goodwill Manasota’s Corporate Campus offices in honor of the late community leader Rick Fawley and his late wife, Coni. Farley served on the Goodwill Manasota board of directors for 20 years. In addition to the crepe myrtle trees in the garden, Turner planted native Sabal palm trees – Florida’s state plant – live oaks and red cedar trees, surrounded by viburnum shrubs, which provide fragrant flowers and showy berries. 

Goodwill Manasota