''Rainbow Time'' is a 2016 American

comedy-drama film 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 ...

written and directed by Linas Phillips. The film stars Phillips,

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 ...

Timm Sharp Timm Sharp (born 1978) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his role as Marshall Nesbitt in the Fox sitcom '' Undeclared'', Doug Von Stuessen in the Fox sitcom Til Death'', and Jim in the Starz comedy '' Blunt Talk''. Early life ...

Tobin Bell Tobin may refer to: Name *Tobin (surname) * Tobin (given name) Places in the United States * Tobin, California * Tobin Bridge, near Boston, Massachusetts * Tobin Range, a mountain range in Nevada * Tobin Township, Perry County, Indiana * Tobin, ...

Jay Duplass Lawrence Jay Duplass (born March 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker, actor and author widely known for his films '' The Puffy Chair'' (2005), '' Cyrus'' (2010), and '' Jeff, Who Lives at Home'' (2011), made in collaboration with his younger brothe ...

Lauren Weedman Lauren Weedman (born March 5, 1969) is an American actress and comedian, known for her regular role on the HBO television series '' Looking'' (2014–2015), and its subsequent series finale television film, '' Looking: The Movie''. She is also kno ...

and

Artemis Pebdani Artemis Pebdani (born August 2, 1977) is an American actress, best known for her roles as Susan Ross on ''Scandal'', Artemis on ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' and Gramma Alice on ''Big City Greens''. Early life Pebdani was born and raised ...

Mark Duplass Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996. Duplass has written and directed films, ...

, and

serve as executive producers on the film, through their

Duplass Brothers Productions Duplass Brothers Productions is an American independent film and television production company founded by Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass, two brothers who are also actors, directors, producers and writers. They have produced films such as ''The Puff ...

banner. The film had its world premiere at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

on March 13, 2016. The film 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 Unit ...

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 ...

November 4, 2016, by The Orchard.

Plot

Shonzi, a developmentally delayed 40 year-old, is sent to live with his brother, Todd. While living with his brother, he develops a crush on Todd's girlfriend, Lindsay.

Cast

* Linas Phillips as Shonzi *

as Todd *

as Peter *

as Lindsay *

as Adam *

as Justine * Jennifer Prediger as Sarah *

as Nina * Robert Longstreet as Jake's Dad * Sarah Smick as Jen * Reagan Yates as Lily * Samantha Buchanan as Sam

Production

The film was first announced in 2010, originally about man named Rimas making a TV show called "Rainbow Time". In July 2014, Phillips uploaded on his

Vimeo.com Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

account rehearsal for the film. In March 2015, Phillips revealed the project would be his next film with production eyed for June–July of that same year. In February 2016, it was revealed that Heather McIntosh had composed the score for the film.

Filming

Production on the film began on September 22, 2015, and concluded on October 9, 2015, lasting a total of 13 days.

Release

The film had its world premiere on March 13, 2016, at

. Shortly after, The Orchard acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film. The film also 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 20, 2016. The film was released on November 4, 2016.

Critical response

''Rainbow Time'' received mixed reviews from film 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 ...

gave the film a 67% approval rating, based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 6.62/10. On

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 ...

, the film holds a rating of 55 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In a two-star review for

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...

, Nick Allen described the film as "unusual" for being "less politically correct, and kinkier, than any movie that might even be comparable." However, Allen felt that it failed to "become the strong feminist statement it ultimately wants to be", and suffered for being "more original than it is clever". In ''

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 ...

'', Jeannette Catsoulis praised the film for being "funny and even perceptive about the nooks and crannies of adult sexual relationships", and considered it to be "very well-acted", particularly by Melanie Lynskey. But Catsoulis criticized the character of Shonzi, finding him to be "creepily calculating and fully capable of controlling his objectionable conduct." Reviewing the film for Spectrum Culture, Rose Kerr also praised Melanie Lynskey's performance, finding her to be "the best actor here", stating that "her character keeps the film grounded in the idea of relationships as balancing acts." However, Kerr concluded that " velopmental disabilities aren’t explored with any depth", and that the film treats them merely as a "fulcrum of...

gross-out humor Gross out is described as a movement in art (often with comical conotations), which is intended to shock the viewer(s) and disgust the wider audience by presenting them with controversial material (such as toilet humor and fetishes) that might b ...

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, rainbow_time, Rainbow Time Duplass Brothers Productions films American independent films American comedy-drama films Films about intellectual disability The Orchard (company) films 2016 comedy-drama films 2016 independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films