Worried is what many people might have been when they heard that renowned actress Lea Thompson is taking a turn at directing; her eldest daughter, Madelyn Deutch, is giving screenplay writing a try and that they are partnering together with her youngest daughter; Zoey Deutch to make a somewhat autobiographical film. Because to make dinner together as a family is one thing, to make a film together as a family is a whole other.
But the beauty in their collaborative film, “The Year of Spectacular Men” – which is meta in so many ways – is it’s focus on just that: trust and open-mindedness. And after seeing this family’s ability to piece together a genuine telling of a 20-year-old’s life, I have full faith in them and the stories they can tell.
All throughout we root for 26-year-old Madelyn and her writing of a film that follows recent college graduate, Izzy Klein navigating men and post-grad life. And just as quickly as the plot may make you roll your eyes back and say “oh no, not this again,” it will make you stop, laugh out loud and reconsider judging a post-graduate who doesn’t quite have everything together. It makes you reconsider ever stopping a millennial woman from taking pen to paper and having a say over her own narrative.
Madelyn writes Izzy as struggling with her father’s recent suicide, trying to graduate from college, find a job and “THE THING” that will make her life whole again. And through wonderfully straightforward character choices such as the blue notebook she carries around to write her stories in, her constant downing of M&M’s and her fixation with “X-files” and Scully and Mulder’s relationship, we grow to understand Izzy more.
In her almost uncomfortably honest characterization of Izzy, Madelyn makes us pay attention and have faith in a girl that doesn’t know where she’s going, knows that she’s been making a lot of mistakes – sleeping with her douche of an ex post-break up, trying and failing to hook up with her scene partner and moving across the country to live with her sister and her long-term boyfriend while unemployed – but is human, real and is doing her best to find “THE THING.”
That is why you can’t help but also appreciate the writing of Izzy’s complex relationship with younger sister, Sabrina. Sabrina’s constant mothering of Madelyn, loving her like a sister one moment – letting her crash in her hotel, buying her waffles for dinner – then going into Mom mode and giving her tough love – sanitizing Izzy’s hands for her when they’re buying Izzy yeast infection cream – the next, is painfully sincere. There’s a realness in all the insanity and a special kind of care in how Madelyn writes Izzy’s year: never wallowing in the gravity of loosing a father to suicide, but always making clear that this woman still has a long ways to go.
As that notion comes to light, as we follow Izzy rushing from place to place and guy to guy, we cannot help but stop and smile, admiring Izzy’s relentless effort to find “THE THING” that will make her happy again. And in turn, we rejoice in Madelyn’s ability to give millennial women a chance to be heard, respected and understood, while still poking fun at all the things the world accuses millennials to be: flighty, irresponsible and overly sentimental.
Madelyn says, “okay, okay I get it, we’re all the things you set us out to be, but we’re also so much more than that. Trust me.”
And after hopping onto the dynamic Thompson-Deutch family express, I trust that all three of these women know exactly what they’re doing.
Written by Asli Shebe
Find our red carpet interview with the Thompson-Deutch women here and our coverage of their panel after the film here.
Asli Shebe is a senior writing major from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She began working for District in 2014 as a staff writer, then copy editor, A&E editor, Chief Assignment editor and finally, Editor-in-Chief in 2017. Asli currently holds the record for obtaining the most job titles during her time at District. When she’s not writing for District you can find her biking around the Historic District of Savannah at odd hours of the day.
