''The Brass Teapot'' is a 2012 American fantasy film directed by

Ramaa Mosley Ramaa Devi Mosley (born October 29, 1981) is an American filmmaker, director, and writer based in Los Angeles. She began directing commercials, music videos, and documentaries at 16-years-old. She is also an activist, known for raising national ...

. The movie's script was written by Tim Macy, who also wrote the short story on which the movie is based. The movie premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

on September 8, 2012, and was released into theaters and

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

on April 5, 2013.

Synopsis

John and Alice are a down-on-their-luck couple who come across a magical brass teapot capable of providing them with money. The only catch is that they must experience pain in order for the teapot to provide. They must then decide what they are willing to do (and what they are willing to suffer through) in order to gain financial security.

Cast

Juno Temple Juno Temple (born 21 July 1989) is a British actress. She has appeared in the films ''Notes on a Scandal'' (2006), ''Atonement'' (2007), ''The Other Boleyn Girl'' (2008), ''The Three Musketeers'' (2011), ''The Dark Knight Rises'' (2012), '' Mag ...

as Alice * Michael Angarano as John *

Alexis Bledel Kimberly Alexis Bledel ( ; born September 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She is known for her role as Rory Gilmore on the television series ''Gilmore Girls'' (2000–2007), and Emily Malek in ''The Handmaid's Tale (TV series), The ...

as Payton * Alia Shawkat as Louise *

Bobby Moynihan Bobby Moynihan (born January 31, 1977) is an American actor, comedian and writer who was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2008 until 2017. He also voiced Louie Duck on Disney's ''DuckTales'' from 2017 to 2021, Panda in ''We Bare Be ...

as Chuck * Ben Rappaport as Ricky * Billy Magnussen as Arnie *

Steve Park Stephen Park (born August 23, 1967) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He won races in NASCAR's two top Northeast touring series ( Modified and K&N East) and all three national divisions (Truck, Busch, Cup Series). Park ...

as Dr. Li Ling *

Lucy Walters ''Power'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Courtney A. Kemp in collaboration with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. It aired on the Starz network from June 7, 2014, to February 9, 2020. Upon release, ''Power'' gaine ...

as Mary *

Claudia Mason Claudia Mason (born March 9, 1973) is an American model and actress. Mason has been featured on the covers of many fashion magazines including Vogue, Elle, W and Cosmopolitan. Mason has appeared in fashion campaigns for the likes of Louis Vuitt ...

as Donna * Debra Monk as Trudy * Thomas Middleditch as Habab *

Cristin Milioti Cristin Milioti (born August 16, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for playing Tracy McConnell in the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'' from 2013 to 2014, and for her work in theater productions such as ''That Face'', ''Stunning'', a ...

as Brandi * Nick Frazier as Wedding Bartender

Reception

''The Brass Teapot'' garnered negative reviews from critics. It holds a 31% approval rating on

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 ...

, based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7/10. The Film.com review said: "Despite the sometimes patchy moments ''The Brass Teapot'' by and large squeaks by as an enjoyable entertainment." The Playlist commented that: "With the help of a talented cast, ''The Brass Teapot'' is able to coast on charm." Hitflix writes: "It is apparent that Ramaa Mosley has a voice, and that ''The Brass Teapot'' is a focused, controlled piece of storytelling that displays real control". The ''Wall Street Journal'' said: "Alice and John are good company — especially Alice, thanks to Ms. Temple's buoyant humor and lovely poignancy. The problem comes when the couple gets greedy, the gods grow angry and the tone turns dark. It doesn't stay dark, but getting back to the brightness is a painful process." Nicolas Rapold of ''

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 ...

'' criticized the film, saying that while the two lead characters were interesting, the "movie's best bits lose out to the requisite moral turnaround". Rob Hunter of ''

Film School Rejects Film School Rejects is an American blog devoted to movie reviews, interviews, film industry news, and feature commentary. It was founded by Neil Miller in February 2006. The site was nominated for Best News Blog by ''Total Film'' magazine and na ...

'' commented that the darker points of the film's story line were "ill fitting" in contrast with the predominantly "comically light and slapsticky" tone of the overall movie. In contrast, Peter Debruge of '' Variety'' gave a more positive review for the film, saying that Mosely "makes her low-budget enterprise look as slick as most midrange studio comedies, demonstrating herself a director with both imagination and technical ingenuity."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brass Teapot, The 2012 films 2012 black comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s fantasy comedy-drama films American black comedy films American fantasy comedy-drama films Films about wish fulfillment Films based on short fiction Films scored by Andrew Hewitt Films shot in Bucharest 2010s American films