''The Intervention'' is a 2016 American
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film written and directed by
Clea DuVall
Clea Helen D'Etienne DuVall (born September 25, 1977) is an American actress, writer, producer, and director. She is known for her appearances in the films ''The Faculty'' (1998), ''She's All That''; '' But I'm a Cheerleader''; '' Girl, Interrup ...
in her directorial debut. The film stars DuVall,
Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Jayne Lynskey ( ; born 16 May 1977) is a New Zealand actress widely known for her portrayals of complex women in several independent films and television shows and also known for her command of American dialects.
Lynskey is the recipi ...
,
Natasha Lyonne
Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein ( ; born April 4, 1979) is an American actress, director, writer, and producer. She is known for playing Nicky Nichols on the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she r ...
,
Vincent Piazza
Vincent Piazza (born May 25, 1976) is an American film, television and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of gangster Lucky Luciano in the HBO television series ''Boardwalk Empire''. He has also played Earl Hefner in the comedy-dram ...
,
Jason Ritter
Jason Morgan Ritter (born February 17, 1980) is an American actor and producer. He is known for his roles as Kevin Girardi in the television series '' Joan of Arcadia'', Ethan Haas in '' The Class'', Sean Walker in the NBC series ''The Event'', ...
,
Ben Schwartz
Benjamin Schwartz (born September 15, 1981) is an American actor and comedian. He has guest starred as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on the NBC sitcom ''Parks and Recreation'' and Clyde Oberholt on the Showtime series ''House of Lies''; voiced Randy C ...
,
Alia Shawkat
Alia Martine Shawkat ( ; ar, عليا مارتين شوكت; born April 18, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in '' The Old Man'', '' State of Grace'', Maeby Fünke in the Fox/Netflix television sitcom ''Arrested Develop ...
and
Cobie Smulders
Jacoba Francisca Maria "Cobie" Smulders (born April 3, 1982) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her starring role as Robin Scherbatsky in the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'' (2005–2014) and as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill in the Ma ...
. ''The Intervention'' had its world premiere at the
2016 Sundance Film Festival
The 2016 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 21 to January 31, 2016. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 2, 2015. The opening night film was ''Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You'', directed by Heidi Ew ...
on January 26, 2016. It was released in 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 Unite ...
and through
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 August 26, 2016, by
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Samuel Goldwyn Films is an American film company that licenses, releases and distributes art-house, independent and foreign films. It was founded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of the Hollywood business magnate/mogul, Samuel Goldwyn. The curre ...
and
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
.
Plot
A weekend getaway for four couples of old friends takes a sharp turn when one of the couples, Ruby and Peter, discover the entire trip was orchestrated with the intention of hosting an "intervention" on their marriage.
As their plans to host an intervention continuously are thwarted, all of the couples' problems are unravelled and it seems as though Peter and Ruby are not the only ones who need interventions.
Cast
*
Clea DuVall
Clea Helen D'Etienne DuVall (born September 25, 1977) is an American actress, writer, producer, and director. She is known for her appearances in the films ''The Faculty'' (1998), ''She's All That''; '' But I'm a Cheerleader''; '' Girl, Interrup ...
as Jessie; an independent-minded career woman and the girlfriend of Sarah. DuVall wrote the character of Jessie with the intention of playing the role herself, although she said after the film's release that she would not cast herself again in a film she was directing due to the stress of directing and acting at the same time. Being an open lesbian herself, Duvall wrote Jessie as gay because she wanted to normalize gay relationships and feature "a gay couple in a movie where it's not about them being gay".
*
Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Jayne Lynskey ( ; born 16 May 1977) is a New Zealand actress widely known for her portrayals of complex women in several independent films and television shows and also known for her command of American dialects.
Lynskey is the recipi ...
as Annie; a neurotic, insecure
alcoholic
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...
who is the mastermind of the "marriage intervention" and Matt's fiancée. DuVall wrote ''The Intervention'' for Lynskey, who is a close friend of hers. She wrote the role of Annie with Lynskey in mind, and Lynskey read DuVall's drafts of the screenplay as she wrote it. Lynskey had three therapy sessions before the film went into production to prepare herself for working with her friend and communicating with each other professionally as actor and director.
She said afterwards, "I didn't want anything to happen to our friendship and a big challenge was being able to stick up for myself and my perspective in regard to the script and this character."
[
* ]Alia Shawkat
Alia Martine Shawkat ( ; ar, عليا مارتين شوكت; born April 18, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in '' The Old Man'', '' State of Grace'', Maeby Fünke in the Fox/Netflix television sitcom ''Arrested Develop ...
as Lola; a free-spirited hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
and girlfriend of Jack. Shawkat is also a longtime friend of DuVall's.[ She was the second actor to be cast, after Lynskey.]
* Cobie Smulders
Jacoba Francisca Maria "Cobie" Smulders (born April 3, 1982) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her starring role as Robin Scherbatsky in the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'' (2005–2014) and as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill in the Ma ...
as Ruby; the long-suffering wife of the career-minded Peter. Smulders broke her leg shortly before filming was scheduled to begin. Instead of replacing her or choosing camera angles that would hide her injury, DuVall chose to include it in the story. Smulders felt that it "added more vulnerability" to her character and DuVall later described it as "one of erfavorite things about the movie".[
* ]Natasha Lyonne
Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein ( ; born April 4, 1979) is an American actress, director, writer, and producer. She is known for playing Nicky Nichols on the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she r ...
as Sarah; Jessie's girlfriend. Lyonne, DuVall and Lynskey had been close friends since appearing together in the 1999 comedy '' But I'm a Cheerleader''.[ DuVall felt that their history of playing lovers in ''But I'm a Cheerleader'', as well as their real-life friendship, "really lent itself to be able to play girlfriends in a way that felt authentic".]
* Jason Ritter
Jason Morgan Ritter (born February 17, 1980) is an American actor and producer. He is known for his roles as Kevin Girardi in the television series '' Joan of Arcadia'', Ethan Haas in '' The Class'', Sean Walker in the NBC series ''The Event'', ...
as Matt; Annie's fiancée. Ritter is Lynskey's real-life partner.[ DuVall cast him as Matt because she had difficulty writing the part and trusted that he could "make it feel like a complete character".][
* ]Ben Schwartz
Benjamin Schwartz (born September 15, 1981) is an American actor and comedian. He has guest starred as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on the NBC sitcom ''Parks and Recreation'' and Clyde Oberholt on the Showtime series ''House of Lies''; voiced Randy C ...
as Jack; a free-spirited hippie type whose wife Mary died a year and a half ago. He is dating 22-year-old Lola with the hopes of something more serious.
* Vincent Piazza
Vincent Piazza (born May 25, 1976) is an American film, television and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of gangster Lucky Luciano in the HBO television series ''Boardwalk Empire''. He has also played Earl Hefner in the comedy-dram ...
as Peter; a workaholic
A workaholic is a person who works compulsively. A workaholic experiences an inability to limit the amount of time they spend on work despite negative consequences such as damage to their relationships or health.
There is no generally accepted ...
businessman and Ruby's husband. DuVall described Piazza as "one of the sweetest guys I've ever met in my entire life" and said that because of his nature, "there were times uring filminghe would be too nice, and I would have to convince him to be an asshole."
Production
DuVall started writing ''The Intervention'' in 2012. The idea for a story based around a marital intervention came partly from DuVall's own life; she said that she was too judgmental of her friends' lives and reluctant to face her own problems. She did not initially intend to direct the script she had written for ''The Intervention'', but changed her mind while trying to find another director.[ The film was produced by Sam Slater and Paul Bernon of Burn Later Productions, along with ]Sev Ohanian
Sevak "Sev" Ohanian ( hy, Սեւակ Օհանյան, born June 2, 1987) is an American film producer and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-writer and producer of the films ''Searching'' and ''Run'', as well as executive producer on the fi ...
. Bernon and Slater became involved after asking DuVall's agency if they had any film projects in need of financing, and Ohanian was brought to the project by Mel Eslyn
Mel Eslyn (born August 19, 1983) is an American film producer, director and writer. She works primarily in the Seattle independent film industry and has collaborated with Lynn Shelton and Mark and Jay Duplass on numerous films. She is best know ...
, who served as an executive producer.[ DuVall said that the process of finding investors was fast and relatively easy, which she attributed to the film's very low budget.][ The film's financing was secured six months after DuVall had finished writing the script, and filming began three months later. Four members of the main cast (Lynskey, Lyonne, Ritter and Shawkat) were friends of DuVall's, while the other three (Smulders, Piazza and Schwartz) were cast through "a connection to someone else in the cast".][
The film was shot in ]Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
, over the course of 18 days in the summer of 2015. It was filmed in particularly hot weather, which caused the cinematographer, Polly Morgan, to develop heat stroke
Heat stroke or heatstroke, also known as sun stroke, is a severe heat illness that results in a body temperature greater than , along with red skin, headache, dizziness, and confusion. Sweating is generally present in exertional heatstroke, ...
. The house where the majority of filming took place repeatedly lost power, leaving the cast and crew without air conditioning and running water on set. DuVall later said that the heat and the problems it caused "probably helped add tension to the scenes".[ Each scene was shot with two cameras simultaneously, with one focused on the speaking character and the other focused on those who were not speaking.] The filmmakers chose not to have playback monitors on set in order to save time and money; DuVall said that this made it difficult to act and direct at the same time since she was unable to watch scenes that required her to be in front of the camera.[
The film was scored by Sara Quin of ]Tegan and Sara
Tegan and Sara () are a Canadian indie pop duo formed in 1998 in Calgary, Alberta. The band is led by identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin (born September 19, 1980). Both musicians are songwriters and multi-instrumental ...
, making her debut as a film composer. DuVall had collaborated with Tegan and Sara several times before as a director of their music videos. She wanted Quin to create a "non-traditional" film score,[ saying, "A big reason why I wanted to work with Sara on the score is because she hasn't done it before. I wanted something that didn't sound like the scores I am used to hearing."] Tegan and Sara also wrote and performed a song for the film, titled "Fade Out". When DuVall approached her about ''The Intervention'', Sara Quin had already written a rough version of the song; she rewrote some of the lyrics to fit with the film.[ DuVall chose to only feature songs with female vocalists on the film's soundtrack.][
]
Release
''The Intervention'' had its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival
The 2016 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 21 to January 31, 2016. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 2, 2015. The opening night film was ''Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You'', directed by Heidi Ew ...
on January 26, 2016, where Lynskey received a Special Jury Award for Individual Performance. Two days after the premiere, it was announced that Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
had acquired worldwide distribution rights for around $2.5 million.[ The film screened at the ]Seattle International Film Festival
The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...
on May 28, 2016, and served as the opening night film for Outfest
Outfest is an LGBTQ-oriented nonprofit that produces two film festivals, operates a movie streaming platform, and runs educational services for filmmakers in Los Angeles. Outfest is one of the key partners, alongside the Frameline Film Festival ...
on July 7, 2016. It was released in 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 Unite ...
in theaters and on 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 ...
through iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
on August 26, 2016. Its theatrical run lasted for a single week; it grossed $32,919 from 17 theaters.
Reception
''The Intervention'' received mostly positive reviews from critics. It currently holds an 78% "Certified Fresh" rating on 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 Wang ...
, based on 51 reviews, with an average rating of 6.41/10. The website's critical consensus states, "''The Intervention''s familiar plot is enlivened by complex character dynamics and a likable cast." 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 holds a rating of 57 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Dennis Harvey 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), ...
'' gave the film a positive review, writing, "Clea DuVall's debut as writer-director breaks no new ground in themes or execution, but is pleasingly accomplished on all levels." IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
's Kate Erbland gave the film a B+ rating, describing it as "a sharp-tongued and smart observational comedy" and praising DuVall's "crisp and smart" direction. Robert Abele of the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' found the film "unfussy, dryly amusing and sincere", and praised the performances of Lynskey and Smulders. Moira Macdonald of ''The Seattle Times
''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...
'' called the film "confident and accomplished" and compared it favorably to ''The Big Chill
Big Chill can refer to:
*The Big Chill (music festival), an annual music and comedy festival held in England
* ''The Big Chill'' (film), a 1983 American film directed by Lawrence Kasdan
*The Big Chill at the Big House, a 2010 U.S. college ice hock ...
''. In a review for ''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 cul ...
'', Kevin P. Sullivan gave the film a B rating, writing, "The script wobbles between heavy-handed and touching, but the result is a pleasantly nostalgic throwback that's saved from its copy-cat tendencies by charismatic actors."
On the other hand, ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
''s Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy (born February 16, 1950) is an American film critic and author. He wrote for ''Variety'' for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010. In October of that year, he joined ''The Hollywood Reporter'', where he subsequently served ...
found the film "bland and without consequence" and opined that DuVall ought to have brought on a co-writer to "create more distinctive characters and dialogue". Nigel M. Smith of ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, criticizing DuVall's "misjudgment of tone" in writing it as a comedy rather than fully exploring the "messed up" characters. Writing for ''Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'', Diego Semerene called the film's premise unoriginal and formulaic, ultimately describing it as "intolerable".
References
External links
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*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Intervention, The
2016 films
2016 LGBT-related films
2016 directorial debut films
American independent films
American LGBT-related films
American comedy-drama films
2016 comedy-drama films
Films directed by Clea DuVall
Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state)
Paramount Pictures films
Samuel Goldwyn Films films
2016 independent films
LGBT-related comedy-drama films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films