''Fourth of July'' is a 2022 American

comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...

film directed and produced by

Louis C.K. Louis Alfred Székely (; born September 12, 1967), known professionally as Louis C.K. (), is an American stand-up comedian, screenwriter, actor, and filmmaker. C.K. won three Peabody Awards, three Grammy Awards, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and a ...

, who co-wrote the screenplay with

Joe List Joseph Albert List (born April 6, 1982) is an American comedian and actor. Early life Joseph Albert List was born in Whitman, Massachusetts, on April 6, 1982. He began performing stand-up comedy in Boston, Massachusetts in 2000, shortly after ...

. The film stars List as Jeff, a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based jazz pianist and recovering alcoholic who visits his family in rural

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

for Independence Day, and confronts them about the emotional traumas he experienced with them starting when he was a child. The film's $2 million budget was self-financed by C.K. ''Fourth of July'' premiered at New York City's Beacon Theatre on June 30, 2022.

Plot

Cast

as Jeff * Sarah Tollemache as Beth, Jeff's wife * Paula Plum as Mom * Robert Walsh as Dad * Tara Pacheco as Naomi, a friend of Brenda's * Robert Kelly as Bobby, a new

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA is non-professi ...

sponsee of Jeff's * Richard O'Rourke as Grandpa * Dorothy Dwyer as Darlene *

Nick Di Paolo Nicholas Rocco Di Paolo (born ) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor, radio personality and podcast host. He is the host of '' The Nick Di Paolo Show'' podcast, and is best known for his appearances as a regular on ''Tough Crowd ...

as Uncle Kevin * Chris Walsh as Uncle Mark * Tony Viveiros as Tony *

Lynne Koplitz Lynne Koplitz is an American stand-up comedian and actress. Koplitz was host of Telepictures' nationally syndicated dating show '' Change of Heart'', guest host on NBC's '' Later'', co-host of the Food Network's ''How to Boil Water'', and co-hos ...

as Tricia * Courtland Jones as Brenda, Jeff's cousin * Bill Scheft as Bill, a long-time sponsor of Jeff and drummer in his band *

as Therapist *

Allan Havey Allan Havey (born September 19, 1954) is an American stand-up comic and actor. He started his career as a comedian in New York City in 1981. Overview Havey made his national debut in 1986 on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' and made many ap ...

as Dentist

Reception

Box office

The film earned $218,722 from two theaters in its opening weekend and $16,014 in its second.

Critical response

Reviews of the film have been mixed. On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, 36% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.10/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 40 out of 100, based on reviews from eleven critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called ''Fourth of July'' "a millennial indie trifle".

Glenn Kenny Glenn Kenny (born August 8, 1959) is an American film critic and journalist. He writes for ''The New York Times'' and '' RogerEbert.com''. Biography Kenny attended William Paterson University, where he majored in English literature.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' stated that the film goes too far in portraying Jeff's family as terrible people, writing, "The family dynamic here is so unrelentingly brutal that it's an actual shock to see how glib the movie is in papering it over." Kyle Smith of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' lauded the film as "one of the best films of the year", calling it "acutely observed". Several reviewers unfavorably compared the film to

Tracy Letts Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for '' August: Osage County'' (2007), for which he received ...

's 2007 play '' August: Osage County'', which is similarly about an extended rural family forced to confront its dysfunctions.

References

External links

* * {{Louis C.K. 2022 comedy-drama films 2022 films 2022 independent films American comedy-drama films American independent films Films about dysfunctional families Films about pianos and pianists Films directed by Louis C.K. Films set in Maine Films with screenplays by Louis C.K. Independence Day (United States) films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films