After the scandal with accusations of sexual harassment, the famous American comedian Louis CK returned to film with a humorous drama, the filming of which he financed himself, and he is also the producer, director and co-writer of the film. However, the first violin in “Fourth of July” is his colleague Joe List, a comedian completely unknown to me who is also a screenwriter, and he embodied the main role, a jazz pianist and treated alcoholic from New York, Jeff. Louis left a minor role for himself, Jeff’s psychotherapist, and this somewhat irritating 40-year-old who seems to be a walking cliché of today’s American people from big cities, as he does every year, plans to return to provincial Maine where his parents live and where the family is expanding gathers for Independence Day.
Jeff is going through a serious existential crisis and has been planning to confront his parents for years because he blames them for turning him into the person he is. Into a coward who sought an escape from problems in alcohol, an insecure and anxious guy who thinks too much about everything and analyzes everything, and is convinced that his parents are to blame because they didn’t give him enough love. For the first time, he will go to his parents’ house without his wife, and when he gets there, the extended family of those stereotypical primitive whitetrashers who talk all day long, fuck each other and have a special pleasure in provoking Jeff, who clearly no longer fits in that society, will be waiting for him. .
Although it is obvious that he feels anxiety in this company, Jeff is determined that he will finally tell everyone what he thinks about them, but we will see that there is another side of the coin. Although this slightly bizarre humorous drama at times seems like a complete cliché, “Fourth of July” has its bright and humorous moments. Thematically, it’s completely different from Louis’ standard, often vulgar, no-holds-barred dirty humor, and I probably assumed that this indie flick might be in that vein as well. Although I have seen some comments that go so far as to compare “Fourth of July” to the masterful family black comedy “August: Osage County”, this was much weaker and more superficial, although both films actually revolve around the same theme – a dysfunctional rural family that will have to confront their dysfunctionality by force of chance.