''Sherrybaby'' is a 2006 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

written and directed by

Laurie Collyer Laurie Collyer (born 1967) is an American film director and screenwriter. Biography Born in Summit, New Jersey, she grew up in Mountainside, New Jersey and attended Oberlin College. After working at a series of odd jobs, she went to film school ...

. Screened at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

on January 25, 2006, the film received a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

on September 8, 2006.

Plot

The story takes place in New Jersey. Sherry Swanson (

Maggie Gyllenhaal Margalit Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal (; born November 16, 1977) is an American actress and filmmaker. Part of the Gyllenhaal family, she is the daughter of filmmakers Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Achs, and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenh ...

), a young woman who has recently been released from prison and is recovering from a

heroin addiction Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a substance use disorder characterized by cravings for opioids, continued use despite physical and/or psychological deterioration, increased tolerance with use, and withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing opioids. Op ...

, is trying to rebuild her life on the outside. Above all, she wants to repair her relationship with her young daughter, but finds the challenges more daunting than she had expected. Her daughter barely recognizes her and no longer calls her "mommy", the

halfway house A halfway house is an institute for people with criminal backgrounds or substance use disorder problems to learn (or relearn) the necessary skills to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. As well as serving as a ...

where she lives has a curfew that interferes with her ability to visit her family, and her relationship with her family has become tense and strained and she often tends to act childlike at times. In between trips to visit her daughter and her job at a youth center, Sherry attends

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 ...

meetings in an effort to beat back her addiction to heroin. She strikes up a relationship with Dean ( Danny Trejo), a fellow addict she meets at Alcoholics Anonymous. The stresses of her damaged relationships with her family, satisfying her parole officer, and finding a way to reconnect with her daughter soon prove overwhelming. Sherry soon starts drinking and using drugs again, putting her parole at risk. Struggling to maintain a grip on her life, Sherry finally breaks down and admits to her brother that she knows she needs help.

Cast

as Sherry Swanson *

Brad William Henke Brad William Henke (April 10, 1966 – November 29, 2022) was an American actor and National Football League and Arena Football League player. He was best known for his role as Corrections Officer Desi Piscatella on ''Orange Is the New Black'', f ...

as Bobby Swanson *

Sam Bottoms Samuel John Bottoms (October 17, 1955 – December 16, 2008) was an American actor and producer. Early life Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the third son of James "Bud" Bottoms (a sculptor and art teacher) and Betty (Chapman ...

as Bob Swanson, Sr. * Kate Burton as Marcia Swanson *

Giancarlo Esposito Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (; born April 26, 1958) is an American actor and director. He is best known for portraying Gus Fring in the AMC crime drama series ''Breaking Bad'', from 2009 to 2011, and in its prequel series ''Better C ...

as parole officer Hernandez *

Rio Hackford Rio Del Valle Hackford (June 28, 1970 – April 14, 2022) was an American film and television actor. He was known for playing the recurring role of Toby in the American drama television series '' Treme''. Life and career Hackford was born in ...

as Andy Kelly * Danny Trejo as Dean Walker * Michelle Hurst as Dorothy Washington * Caroline Clay as parole officer Murphy * Bridget Barkan as Lynette Swanson * Ryan Simpkins as Alexis Parks * Stephen Peabody as Mr. Monroe

Reception

''Sherrybaby'' received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator

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 Wan ...

reports that 75% of 67 critics gave the film a positive review. The site's consensus is that "Maggie Gyllenhaal delivers riveting performance as a recovering drug addict in a depressing and entirely believable movie."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a "generally favorable" average score of 66, based on 18 reviews. ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

'' praised the film as "emotionally arresting" and "authentic and moving", and describes Gyllenhaal as "such a miracle of an actress that she makes you respond to the innocence of Sherry's desperate, selfish destruction." ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' also gave a positive review of the film, complimenting Collyer's "vivid eye for detail and the small, telling human moments that make a movie resonate with audiences".

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sherrybaby 2006 films 2006 drama films American drama films Crystal Globe winners Films about drugs Films set in New Jersey Films shot in New Jersey Big Beach (company) films American independent films 2006 independent films Films about mother–daughter relationships 2000s English-language films 2000s American films