‘Schmigadoon!’ co-creator Cinco Paul satirizes Broadway

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“This is fresh air, I'm TV critic David Bean Coolie.”

Earlier this week, the musical "Schmiga Dune" opened on Broadway, to lots of applause and rave reviews. The New York Times called it a "Blast," which it is. I saw it in previews last Friday and loved it. It's also a "Blast" from the past, a warm-hearted embrace and spoof of classic Broadway musicals from Oklahoma and the sound of music to carousel and the music man. The title "Schmiga Dune" is a play on another musical classic "Brigadune" in which two tourists stumble upon a magical village with its own eccentric inhabitants and rules.

In Schmiga Dune, the tourists are loving couple, Josh and Melissa. They're in love, but after a few years of living together, they're also in kind of a rut.

“Schmiga Dune originated in 2021 as a six-part mini-series on Apple TV+.”

Co-created by Cinco Paul and Candario. Cinco Paul, who wrote the music lyrics in book for the Broadway version, has reshaped and condensed those six TV episodes into one night of theater, but has retained all the key songs, characters and plot twists. The original TV version began when the two doctors, Melissa and Josh met cute at a hospital vending machine then jumped into bed. On Broadway, the vending machine turns into a bed, a clever transition that saves time and makes the same point only funnier.

Directoring choreographer Christopher Gatelli also choreographed the TV version, so everything I loved about the full ensemble staging of such infectious-ly-gitty numbers has corn-putton, has arrived on Broadway intact. Corn-putton, which sets the tone early in the show, is confident in the way it both echoes and links at old musical conventions. And that confidence is well-earned. Corn-putton won an Emmy for Paul that year for outstanding original music and lyrics. On Broadway, Josh is played by Alex Brightman, a Tony nominee for his starring stage roles in Beetlejuice and School of Rock.

Melissa is played by Sarah Chase from TV's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Their comic timing together is flawless, and the supporting cast features a lot of standouts. The Apple TV+ version of Schmiggadoon was divided into two different six-episode seasons. When they premiered, I raved about both. In season one, to which the Broadway musical closely adheres, Josh and Melissa happened upon a mysterious land, but can't leave it until they find true love. When first they cross that magical bridge into Schmiggadoon, the townspeople instantly prepared a greet them by dancing and singing.

Melissa, who grew up loving musicals, is delighted. Josh is not. On TV, Melissa was played by Cecily Strong, and Josh was played by Keegan Michael Keegan.

“Okay, what is this? The why is music coming from everywhere?”

Welcome to our little town, where friends are all you meet, and you will never see a frown.

Hey everyone! Hey there Pete! We bet you're coming wondering what we've all. The most beautiful wonderful magical grace of all. What is happening? I must be something they do for tourists like Colonial Williamsburg.

The second season of Schmiggadoon ran two years later, featuring most of the cast members returning in different roles.

The twist was that when Melissa and Josh returned to Schmiggadoon, it's now populated by the next generation of musicals, typified by echoes of sweet charity, Chicago, hair, and swenny Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street. The second season was called Schmiggadoon, and it featured the same cast, most of them in new roles, which the Broadway production could blaze a new trail by emulating. There's no reason Broadway's new hit musical in time shouldn't have a sequel ready and waiting in the wings, with cast members from Schmiggadoon ready to sign up for Schmiggadoon.

Although Josh and Melissa, in the audience, are anything but outraged. Do we shock you? Make you ill at ease? Do we offend your tender sense of ill at ease? There's no nor we won't transgress. Look, there's a man and he's wearing a dress. Yeah, I mean, I've literally seen every season of drag race. In time, Schmiggadoon may make the transition to Broadway just as Schmiggadoon has.

But for now, you can get tickets to Schmiggadoon, or watch both seasons on Apple TV.

Meanwhile, here's an interview Terry Gross conducted with Cinco Paul when the TV musical first premiered.

Back in 2021, when he spoke with Terry, Paul had written all the songs for the TV version of Schmiggadoon, and had co-created and co-written the series with his writing partner, Candario. Previously, the two of them had written the animated films "Despicable Me," "The Secret Life of Pets," and "The Doctor Suicide" "Aptations," "Horton Here's a Who," and "The Lorax." In the original TV version of Schmiggadoon, the small town of the title looks like a stage or movie set from the early 20th century.

The women are wearing prairie dresses with long petty coats, and the men are dressed like they're in a barbershop quartet.

“It turns out that in this town, life is a musical.”

Let's pick up on the scene in which Melissa and Josh played by Cecilie Strong and Keegan Michael Key,

first encounter the townspeople of Schmiggadoon.

The people start singing about their town, which makes Melissa smile and Josh cringe. See if you can guess which musical inspired this particular number. [Music] [Music] Thank you, Paul. Welcome to Fresh Air. Thank you so much for creating this series.

Thank you for having me.

“How did you come up with the idea of a musical about people trapped in a musical set in the early 20th century?”

Well, it's kind of crazy. I had the idea for this almost 25 years ago, and it was while I was watching the movie in American Werewolf in London, of all things, one of my favorite movies, and it opens with two friends hiking through the wilderness, and they're hiking over the countryside, and I suddenly thought, "Wow, the opening to this is very much like the opening to Brighadoon,"

and then I thought, "What if these two modern guys, instead of stumbling on a town that has a wearable, stumbled on a town that was in a musical?" And that was the germ of the idea, but I didn't really know what to do with it, so it was one of those that I just filed away. But what really cracked it for me was, "Oh, instead of two friends, it should be a couple."

So there is more of a romantic comedy, and it can be more about what does love mean.

“What's true love really mean? I think that's why, for 25 years, nothing happened with it,”

because it needed that addition to really crack it. So the Sicily-strong character loves musicals, the Keegan-Michael Key character hates musicals. Why did you want him to hate musicals?

Well, I thought it was really important. I mean, first of all, it's really funny to have someone who hates musicals

to be stuck in a musical, but also for him to be the eyes and ears of the people unlike me who don't love musicals. And in many ways that was Ken, and in many ways it's my wife, you know, that- Oh, boy, you're trapped. I'll tell you, Ken and I, you know, played music all the time when we were writing, and whatever

So it wasn't really important for the show to have that perspective.

Some musicals have really corny scenes in them, and the kind of scene that always boars me is the picnic scene,

where it's like, "This was a real nice clam bag. I'm really glad we came." It's like, "Can we skip that?" "Can we skip that and get to the good stuff?" And I never really understand the function that they serve. And you kind of have a song parodying that, called "Corn Pudding." Yes. And so the reason why they're singing about "Corn Pudding" is that it's their first morning in town,

and they're sitting on the porch, and about to have breakfast. And they're asked if they want some "Corn Pudding," and then they don't even know what "Corn Pudding" is. And then the town just starts singing about how "Great "Corn Pudding" is. So I'd like you to talk a little bit about what you think of those moments in musicals, where you have to sing about food or a picnic or a clam bag.

Yeah. I mean, "Corn Pudding" came out of, initially was thinking, "What is the song that is most going to annoy?"

“I think he can scare. What would be the worst possible song to subject him to?”

And it's just a song just about food. And "Corn Pudding" suddenly came to me and it's kind of the perfect representation of these sort of songs, like it's a real nice clam bag. Like who cares? Like, you know what? The songs really should move the story forward in some way.

And I think that the worst example is "Shepoopi" from Music Man, which is it brings everything to a grinding halt and then this Marcellus character is just singing this nonsense song that has nothing to do with anything. And so that's what "Corn Pudding" is. It's an ode to those songs. But the fun thing is that ironically in our show, it does move the story forward

because this stupid song gets kicking to say, "Okay, we're leaving."

We're not going to spend another minute in this town. One way here, "Corn Pudding" and we'll also hear the Cecilia Strong character kind of join in a verse, much to the "Cegan Micah Key" character's annoyance. My God, those four coins, I've got the rest of me, so if he wants my food, you'll have to marry me. Oh, you'll have to marry me.

You put the corn in the pudding and the pudding in the bowl, you put the bowl in the milk, 'cause it's good for the soup, but the corn in the pudding and the pudding in the bowl, you put the bowl in the bowl,

“and the belly, 'cause it's good for the salt. Who wants corn pudding?”

Who wants corn pudding? Who wants corn pudding? Who wants corn pudding? I think they want us to take a break. I'm not singing, they're not singing. I'm not going to be fine. No, do not.

Never had corn pudding. Why? And it may be a waste. But if you've got some extra... I sure would like a taste.

The music is kind of like a ho-down. Yes. It just reminded me, too, that when I was in school, we had to learn some of that kind of dancing, you know, like square dancing. Yeah, that was part of the curriculum.

Yeah, I was learning this. We live in Brooklyn, like, what are you thinking? I want to get to another song. We all know that so many performers on Broadway historically have been gay, and it's only in recent years that they've been able to be out.

And it's only recently that there are actually musicals about gay people who are out of the closet. So you have a few really funny references to, like, closeted gay people in musicals. One of the really funny songs that the mayor who's played by Alan coming

“is Secretly Gay, and it's a secret he's never disclosed to anybody.”

And he seems a song that kind of is a secret love kind of song. But yes, where he inadvertently reveals to Cecilies character that he's gay. Because she has gayed art and no one in the town does. Yeah, that's exactly. But the mayor's wife sings a song that's called he's a queer one

that man of mine. She has no clue that he's gay.

And usually in those songs, that's, he's wonderful. He's so different from other men.

“But in this one, it's kind of like, "Hmm, he's so different than other men."”

I want you to talk about writing this, because this is an example of a song that I don't think closely adheres to another song. It's a kind of, there's references to other songs in it, including "You're a queer one, Julie Jordan." That's from Carousel, right?

That's from Carousel. Yeah. So, but talk about writing this and what you wanted to do with it. Yeah, I mean, to me, there is a trope in these musicals. Often, there's a song called Something Wonderful from King and I.

And another song from Carousel called What's the Use of Wandren. You know, these women who sing songs where, you know, he has maybe these flaws, but I still love him. You know, and so I want to play with that. But this is a song where she has no clue that her husband is gay,

but everything that is evidence that he's gay, she sees as a really positive quality. Like, he doesn't look at other women. You know? And for her, it's all these really positive qualities, but also really, in many ways, the mayor's story is at the heart of the show,

because he is one of these characters that back in the day could only be queer coded, you know? But because we have modern characters in "Schmige to Now" and Cecil's character really likes to get involved in people's lives, she helps push him to, you know, proclaim to the whole town

who he really is.

And Alan does such an amazing job with this character,

and really gives him depth and heart in a way that elevates it even beyond, you know, what I'd hoped he'd bring. Yeah, he's great in it. This clip will start with Cecil's strong speaking, and I should say that the mayor's last name is Men Love. Another little clue. Okay, so here's He's a queer one,

and this is Anne Herotta singing. This is Men Love, forgive me for asking,

“but how much do you really know about your husband?”

That's a good question. He's a hard man to know, it seems. Different. Some men like to fight and curse they smoke and drink and yell. Leave your flat or even worse, they stay and make life hell.

But my man is gentle, a soft and sentimental, as any lace adorned a valentine. He's a queer one, that man, oh my.

Oh, honey. Some men stumble home, after what dinner and dessert. Other men have eyes that spark at every passing skirt. But my man loves cooking.

I've never caught him looking.

At other gals more young to teach, or find, be a queer one, that man, oh my. This was literally me and high school. Show me any other man more tender,

or expressive. I only wish that nightly. He was slightly more aggressive. There it is.

“Sometimes it may seem like he is too good to be true.”

Like there's a man that I can't see, just eat him to break through. I wish I could free him.

So I could finally see him.

The way he truly is, and let him shine. He's a queer one, that man, oh my. Let's music from Shmigan Dune, the Loving Satire,

of 40s and early 1950s, musicals and my guest, Cinco Paul, co-created, the series co-wrote it and wrote all the songs. Oh, that's really,

it's a funny song, but it's also, it's a lovely song. It's a nice melody. Yeah, I mean,

that was the intention.

if that makes sense.

“I really wanted them, like, oh, that could genuinely have been a song sung”

and undiscovered Rogers and Hammerstein musical. And then it ends in a very, you know,

and doesn't amazing job with a song.

And it ends in a really sweet spot, right? Where she sort of wishes, he could be who he really is. She suspects that he's not being his true self. She doesn't know what that actually means,

but she really wishes the best for him and loves him. Cinco Paul, speaking to Terry Gross in 2021. Coming up, we'll continue their conversation and film critic Justin Chang reviews

the new film, Blue Heron. I'm David B. and Coolie, and this is Fresh Air. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, please, no song, I'll do anything.

Guys, actually in the middle of something. You can't plow a field without hitting some stone.

How are you first exposed to musicals?

Like, where did you grow up? Did you see music theater? Was this all through movies? I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. So I didn't see a lot of shows live,

but my mom really loved musicals and she had cast recordings for, I specifically remember Camelot. You know, loving is a pretty young kid, and listening to it.

I was a weird kid, you know, singing, I wanted what the king is doing tonight in my room. Memorizing the lyrics. But I remember, you know, Camelot and South Pacific and guys and dolls,

and hearing those a lot. And so that's really, that's when my love affair with musicals began. But also, I remember seeing singing in the rain for the first time as a kid,

and Donald O'Connor doing make him laugh. And I thought that was the greatest thing I've ever seen. In my life, it was so funny and I just loved it. So that's really where I began when I was a kid.

“And then, I think a real key moment was,”

I think I was 14 and was asked to play piano for my high school's musical. And it was how to succeed in business without really trying. And that really changed everything because then suddenly that became my tribe.

You know, the theater kids and they embraced me. And, you know, I desperately wanted to be on stage. But probably because I didn't really belong there, they kept saying, "No, but think of we need you on a piano. Please continue playing piano for us."

But that's really where it deepened into something different. It became my community, you know? Did you want to continue in the musical community? Because it's not the direction you went and until now.

You know, in college, I always wanted to be on stage.

And so in college, I tried out for several musicals and didn't get in and I did end up playing piano for a bunch of them. And so at some point I realized, "Well, maybe that's not my thing." And then I was really interested in being a pop musician. You know, I'd always written songs from a pretty early age.

And so I think there was maybe a sense that, "Well, musical theater isn't cool." And I want to be Elvis Costello, you know?

“And so that's why I focus, but people would continually tell me,”

"Oh, that sounds like something from a musical." And I was really offended. I'd say like, "What are you talking about? This is rock and roll, you know?" And so I think life was telling me that that's where I belonged.

But, and then life was just weird. Again, you get, you make little choices and oppose you in different directions. And I got pulled into screenwriting and then ended up writing all these animated movies. And I sort of set that part of me aside for a while. Can you sing a few bars of one of your Elvis Costello-ish songs?

Oh, my goodness. Let's see. Of man's last mistake. And woman's first hurt to the final heartache. From a fall to a flirt, I won't forgive and forget anymore.

Oh, my gosh. I haven't sung that song since I was like 19. That's a syncopal classic called "Forgiven Forget." Do you had a band? Yeah, I had a band in high school.

But it was kind of like me just forcing them to accompany me for all my songs. So it wasn't a true band in the real sense.

I learned to play a bunch of instruments and then I'd go into the recording studio and make albums.

“And really, that was kind of my dream. You know, I wanted to be.”

I was Costello, Randy Newman, Paul McCartney, you know, all my heroes. And there was a point where I realized I got married. And we were expecting our first child. And we were in North Carolina at the time. My wife was in med school.

And the plan was always after med school.

We'll go to LA and I'll pursue my music career. But with impending fatherhood upon me, suddenly I started to really question, like, what is that going to be and is that the life I want? So I got the idea to apply to film school. And I always felt very safe and academic settings.

So I thought, I'll apply to film school. And if I get into USC or UCLA, that'll mean, you know, that maybe that's the direction my career should go. I got into USC and that kind of changed everything and got me on the screen writing track as opposed to the pop musician track. No, we left something out of your music career, early music career.

“You remember of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, which most people I think know as the Mormon Church.”

Your mother was a part of the Church, your father was Catholic, but not practicing. And you got baptized, I think, after right before, right after graduating from Yale.

No, right before I headed off to college.

Okay, and there was a musical celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Church. And I think you wrote the songs for that? I wrote everything. I wrote the book and the music and lyrics for that. It was about a modern girl and her great, great, great grandmother who was a pioneer girl who switched places.

Gosh, that's almost a little bit electromegadone, where the modern and the pastor colliding. I know, I feel like maybe I've been writing the same thing over and over my whole career. So what was it a comedy? Was it serious? Yeah, it was comedy, which was sort of very different. Usually these productions are pretty serious, you know, in reverential and a funny look at, you know,

this, it was too fish out of water scenarios, right? They both switched places with each other.

But, you know, it was only a couple performances, but it was really well received.

And the biggest thing that happened in that was, that's where I met my writing partner, Ken, Dario. He auditioned and was in the show. He, unlike me, is someone who belongs on stage. And we became friends, we formed a band. And then at some point, I said, let's write a script together.

And that changed everything. Be getting back to the musical. You did for the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. What was the reaction in the Church to the musical? Everybody really likes it.

It got a bunch of laughs because I think people just weren't used to seeing one of these productions and have it be really a comedy at its heart. And so they actually, like, seven years later, they revived it. So I've had a revival of a musical. And they did it again seven years later.

But haven't done it since then. It's just sort of been languishing. Cinco Paul, speaking with Jerry Gross in 2021. More after a break, this is fresh air. So you and your writing partner, Ken Dario,

used to sing your pitches when you were pitching a film idea.

“So please, you must sing one of your pitches.”

Well, see that. I mean, we wouldn't sing the pitch. Right, we wouldn't say this is a story about a guy. You know, who is in trouble with the law? No, that would be a nightmare.

We would have been kicked out of everybody's office. But we would sing in our pitches. Like, there were musical moments. And we would often put a musical moment in our stories. So it was a moment, you know, I guess you call it non-digetic.

When people are singing as part of the story. So we would generally sing that. Can you give us an example? There was, we were pitching our take on a movie called Car Wars about two rival card dealers.

And one becomes friends with the other. And so he would sing to him. You are so beautiful to me. And so it was kind of a stick we do. So I would generally sing to Ken.

And Ken would play the person being very uncomfortable with being sung to.

Which I guess is in many ways a lot of the comedy that didn't make a tune.

But it was fun because I would always push it further than we had ever done in rehearsal during the actual pitch meeting.

And we would play with each other in that way. There was a lot of improv, you know, in our pitches because we had a partner there. And so that's often how the musical part of it would play out. Let me ask you about the spiccable me. And this is a character who's competing to be the worst villain in the world.

And he's not that great of a villain really. So he's going to try to steal the moon. And what he's done is like, you know, he stole a replica of the Eiffel Tower and a rep-- And the Statue of Liberty from Vegas.

Yeah, a replica from Vegas, like a souvenir, basically.

How did you come up with the idea for this? Well, the original idea came from a Spanish animator named Sergio Pablo's. Who had pitch, Chris Melodondri, the idea of a villain who adopted three little girls in order to pull off a heist. And so Chris then pitched that to me and Ken and instantly we fell in love with the idea.

“And it was really the broadest of concepts I think that Sergio would come up with.”

And so then it was up to us to flesh it out and, you know, come up with it. Because I don't think the moon was part of that story. And so that's where it started. But then, you know, it was, it was our job to write the complete story and come up with all the characters. And you created the minions, which are these like animated henchmen.

Would you describe what they look like for anyone who hasn't seen the film? If there are people out there who have not, you know, been exposed to minions, you know, more power to you. Yeah, they kind of took them. They're like these little yellow pill like creatures that have goggles on either their two or one, you know, single eyes. And they wear blue overalls. And really, I have to give a much of the credit for the minions to Pierre cofan, who is the director.

And he really came up with that design and the concept. So where Ken and I wrote that that grew had minions. But it was really Pierre who came up with the concept and he does all the voices for the minions as well. Was there a whole lot of minions, Merck? It's interesting when the first movie came out, we couldn't get anyone to, you know, make toys or anything.

They like tried everywhere and no one was interested. And then suddenly the movie came out. And, you know, was a surprise hit and the minions took off. And then suddenly, you know, everybody was knocking down their door. But initially it's funny. We could, no one was interested. But now they're everywhere, unfortunately, my apologies.

“Does that make more money than the movie even does?”

I don't know because, you know, we don't see any of that money in animation. You know, we don't get residuals from the movies in animation. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine. And it's, I feel like it's unfair and not right because it takes as much work to write an animated movie. It takes more, actually, than to write a live action movie.

But you're not protected by the writer's guilds. Why is that? Why aren't you in the writer's guild? It's a long story, but really, you know, when animation started out, they didn't have writers.

And so it's never fallen under the auspices of the writers' guilds.

There's people pushing for it and trying to make it happen.

“And I think in TV animation, they've gotten more power for animation writers.”

But it's one of those things that if the studio doesn't have to give it, they won't. And so, you can imagine there's a lot of money that Ken and I could have gotten from these movies that we have not because we don't get residuals. Well, that's just really shocking to me. I had no idea. Is that one of the reasons why you're kind of done for now with animation? Not really because I know it sounds super corny, but it really was never about the money for me, you know?

But for me, it was just, you know, we were doing all these sequels, and I just was not interested in that. And really wanted to stretch some other muscles, particularly the songwriting muscle. And so that's really why I decided to leave.

The first cartoon I saw that really impacted me, I think, was the jungle book. I loved that movie so much, and the songs and that are so good. And then I have to say, the Marks Brothers have played a huge role in my life.

“I'm sure that's why I ended up writing movies.”

I saw my first Marks Brothers movie when I was 10 on TV, and I fell in love with the Marks Brothers and became obsessed. And that really led to my love of movies and reading about movies, and then starting to make my own with our family's super eight camera, which we've gotten for home movies, you know, on vacation, and suddenly I used it just to make movies with all the neighborhood kids. You love movies, and you and your writing partner, Candario, have a podcast. Is this still going on in your podcast?

Yeah, it's called "Make Him Watch It," and we make each other watch a movie we've never seen before.

Then you have a couple episodes where you share your opinions of films of the '80s and films of the '90s, but I want to play the theme song from this because I think it's you and can actually singing the song. It is. I wrote the song. Oh, you wrote the song, and so in the spirit of turning your life into a musical. I just want to play the opening theme from your podcast, "Make Him Watch It." ♪ The flux of movies can't hasn't seen ♪ ♪ Some single hasn't seen too ♪

♪ So now that there's COVID-19 ♪ ♪ Here's what we're gonna do ♪ ♪ We're gonna make it watch it ♪ ♪ For a podcast ♪ ♪ We can't wait to make it watch it ♪

♪ We'll sing the way it can ♪

I really love that. It's so like Vaudeville era.

Did you hear that? How are you introduced to music of that period? I mean, it probably came from my love of the Marx Brothers. And a lot of their movies were kind of musicals. The coconuts, animal crackers, horse feathers has a lot of songs in it.

“So I think that led to my love of these 1920s songs, the Tin Pan Alley stuff.”

And from the time I was a weird little kid, Terry had to say, to be a 10 or 11 year old kid obsessed with that sort of music was very odd. But I just, I loved it from an early age. Well, listen, congratulations on making a tune. Please do a season two.

And it's been great to talk with you. From your mouth to God's ears. I have to say it is so meaningful to me that you like the show and that you responded to it like this. Thank you so much.

Cinco Paul speaking with Terry Gross in 2021. You can stream both seasons of Schmiggadoon on Apple TV. Paul wrote the book, Music and lyrics for the current production of Schmiggadoon, now on Broadway.

“After a break, Justin Chang reviews the new film, Blue Heron.”

This is fresh air. Our film critic, Justin Chang, recommends Blue Heron,

the first feature from the writer director Sophie Romvari.

It's a semi-autobiographical drama that touches on Romvari's childhood in British Columbia and her family's experience of tragedy. The film is one numerous prizes at international film festivals and is now playing in select U.S. theaters. Here is Justin's review.

There have been countless coming-of-age movies about the summer that changed everything. A season marked by a move to a new town, a fleeting the memorable romance or a shattering crisis. It's not easy to make a film in this vein that feels fresh or personal. But the Canadian writer director Sophie Romvari has somehow done both

with her exquisite, achingly sad debut feature, Blue Heron. It's based on events from her own life, which she previously explored in her 2020 documentary short, Still Processing. That title could just as well have applied to Blue Heron, in which she pears back into her past,

and tries to make sense of what she finds. Most of the story takes place over one summer in the late 1990s. Eight-year-old Sasha, played by a Lou Govan, has just moved with her Hungarian immigrant parents and three older brothers to a small town on Vancouver Island.

Life here is idyllic in many ways. The island is beautiful and peaceful, and Sasha enjoys spending time outdoors with her family, and making new friends. But a cloud huffers over everything,

Sasha's oldest brother, Jeremy, played by a deep bed O's,

“isn't adjusting well to the move, to put it mildly.”

He's pivish with his parents and siblings, and acts out in ways that range from annoying to dangerous. He climbs up on the roof. He wanders off without telling anyone. He shoplifts and gets arrested.

In one relatively mild instance of misbehavior, Jeremy lies down on the front porch one afternoon, keeping so still that a neighbor calls the house, alarmed that he might be dead. No, no, I appreciate it.

Yeah, yeah, no, I'm with you. Yes, yeah. Who was that?

Jason, from across the street,

he wanted to let us know that our son is dead on the front step. Oh, it's done.

“I told him to be unaware, and not to worry.”

He will come back to life soon. Sasha's parents are sensitively played by Adam Tomba, an Irringo Ratee, who show us a loving marriage that's come under all kinds of strain. There's Jeremy, of course,

but there are also the challenges of settling into a new home in a still fairly new country. Sasha's father spends a lot of time working on his computer, and his wife is frustrated at having to do most of the housework and childrearing.

But Romvari doesn't exaggerate these pressure points. Nor does she overplay Jeremy's behavior. The film is meticulous about showing the family's genuinely happy times, including those rare moments when Jeremy cracks a smile and comes out of his shell.

It's as if Romvari wants to be fair to Jeremy, to not let his diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder define him. In time, though, as Jeremy keeps acting out, the situation becomes untenable, and a social worker, one of many professionals brought in to help,

recommends that Jeremy be sent away. In its dramatic restraint and psychological insight, Blue Harem reminded me of two exceptional recent films about parents and kids, after son and Janet Planet, both of which were also partly inspired by their director's childhoods.

Romvari's film is the most carefully constructed memory piece I've seen in some time. You get the sense that she's trying to put together what she remembers as precisely as she can, right down to the clunky 90s window's interface on Sasha's dad's computer. Romvari treats the camera as an instrument of subjectivity.

For the most part, we see mainly what Sasha sees, and how she sees it.

“Key moments are glimps from odd oblique angles,”

events that Sasha never witnessed, or perhaps for God,

are not dramatized at all. At times the camera pans idly from left to right, a movement that simulates the act of sifting through the past. And roughly the half-way mark, Blue Harem makes a daring leap. Suddenly we are following an older version of Sasha,

played by Amy Zimmer, who is now, like Romvari, a filmmaker, came to make sense of her family history. But the way she goes about it triggers a surprising twist that gently toys with our sense of time and reality. In asking what she, or anyone, could have done differently,

Romvari laments the imperfections of memory, the effects of mental illness, and the limitations of even the most loving family. This beautiful and perceptive film, feels like something summoned from deep within her consciousness,

and piped directly into ours. Film critic Justin Chang reviewed the new film Blue Harem by Sophie Romvari. On Monday's show, actor writer and carpenter Nick Offerman. He stars in the new critically acclaimed TV show Margo's got money troubles, based on the popular book of the same name.

Offerman won an Emmy Award for his work on the series The Last of Us, and he's best known for playing Ron Swanson on the Comedy Parks and Recreation. I hope you can join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at NPR Fresh Air.

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