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Home » Review of "Tick Tock Lullaby"

Review of "Tick Tock Lullaby"

by
Danielle Riendeau
, Contributing Writer
March 25, 2008

The film also has a unique sense of humor that flows from its sense of realism. Nothing is played up as a joke, per se, but several situations invite laughter, including some of Sasha's more explicit drawings and much of the casual banter between her and Maya. In one particularly funny scene, Fiona emulates a baby's crying (in bed, no less) to irritate Steve, who exclaims, "You aren't doing it right!" One gets the sense that the characters are simply humorous people thrust into odd situations.

The obviously low-budget production values are the only real issue keeping the movie from greatness. Tick Tock Lullaby is competently made and well-edited, but it was clearly shot on video. Thankfully, the writing and performances are strong enough to carry the movie, and the visuals do add a sort of docudrama realism that fits nicely into the story line.

The acting is excellent and quite natural, particularly from leads Lisa Gornick and Raquel Cassidy. The pair has a believable, easygoing chemistry and a likability that's infectious — you want them to succeed.

Jake Canuso is appropriately slick as Laurence, and Sarah Patterson is excellent as the disaffected, slightly strange Gillian. Both Joanna Bending and Sam Spruell are good in their roles, but Bending's Fiona comes across as a relatively unappealing character, while Spruell's Steve doesn't have many lines to work with.

Gornick pulls triple duty as the writer, director and co-star, an admirable feat. Thankfully, her direction is deft, with a focus on capturing the realism of low-key moments that still drive the action forward. As a result, the film feels fresh and honest without becoming trite or boring.

It's very anti-Hollywood, and in fact, a great example of just how much can be done with a fairly simple technical setup. It's wonderful to see a quality film made for and about the community that's taken Angela Robinson's advice to heart.

While some viewers will be put off by the low-fi visuals, Tick Tock Lullaby is more than worth checking out for its unique, frank approach to an overdone subject. It couldn't possibly be more different from the current crop of baby and pregnancy-related movies, which is probably a good thing.

Watch the trailer:

Tick Tock Lullaby comes out on DVD April 8, 2008.

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pumice's picture

Hmmm...

Submitted by
pumice (47 posts)
on March 25, 2008 - 11:04pm.

I am interested but not interested at the same time.

I don't want to doubt you
Know everything about you
I don't want to sit
Across the table from you
Wishing I could run.....

-Cake, and what I live my life by.

jessabellababy's picture

creepy and strange

Submitted by
jessabellababy (1 post)
on March 26, 2008 - 2:05am.

I found this movie to be more on the creepy, strange, side.

jorja's picture

...

Submitted by
jorja (14 posts)
on March 26, 2008 - 4:59am.
I agree. I didn´t like this movie. No reason to watch it again.
rb23885's picture

creepy and strange

Submitted by
rb23885 (3 posts)
on May 15, 2008 - 12:37pm.
I agree. I found it unsettling. 
CharmedLassie's picture

Ermm...

Submitted by
CharmedLassie (39 posts)
on March 26, 2008 - 4:41am.
I was all for watching it until I took a peek at the trailer!
Druj's picture

I couldn't for the life of

Submitted by
Druj (1290 posts)
on March 26, 2008 - 7:49am.
I couldn't for the life of me see any of the positive things this reviewer saw in this movie. I thought it exemplified all the bad things about this type of movie. All the old idiocies and the clichés about the utterly overdone (no matter how, "fresh" a film maker thinks she/he can do it) lesbian concieving. I mean, doing it "the old fashioned way"? Give me a break, I thought we buried that poor, beaten old horse a decade ago? The only reason I can see for doing that is to create some cheap sense of sexual angst involving a man in an otherwise dead storyline. Which of course may give it some superficial emotional resonance, but in reality adds nothing except another nail in the coffin of the genre.
NLL's picture

OY

Submitted by
NLL (132 posts)
on March 26, 2008 - 10:02am.
I think I would rather shoot myself than watch this movie. I suppose I should actually watch it before judging it but even the favourable review makes me want to run a mile.
shelleyc's picture

Yeah

Submitted by
shelleyc (302 posts)
on March 26, 2008 - 11:06am.

I didn't like her other movie very much, and I wasn't impressed by the trailer.

Shelley C

Sarah's picture

Raquel Cassidy is hilarious!

Submitted by
Sarah (42 posts)
on March 26, 2008 - 11:08am.
Raquel Cassidy is hilarious! I love her sarcasm. Even though I'm sure she'll be different in this movie (and similar to "Do I Love You?", which was terrible) I added it to my netflix queue anyway. So we'll see...
hotinthasheets's picture

Yeah, I'm pretty much with

Submitted by
hotinthasheets (28 posts)
on March 26, 2008 - 5:05pm.

Yeah, I'm pretty much with the above comments...I didn't really see the positives and couldn't finish watching this movie, I left the theatre for the nearest bar.  It could have been made in 1998.  Granted, I really can't relate to wanting to have children (yet) or trolling for sperm (ever, even as hilarious as that phrase is).  One of worst (IMHO) lesbian-film-cliche's (and early and mid 90's films in general) is the hyper-pseudo-realism that many of these films try to portray, when you really just end up seeing the director's lack of creativity, i.e. them falling back heavily on thinly veiled personal experience.  That's why Angela Robinson rocks my world.  She creates whole story worlds with her work that are fun and creative.   

Natazzz's picture

Not for me

Submitted by
Natazzz (1113 posts)
on March 27, 2008 - 7:25am.

I'm not convinced there is anything about this movie that makes it worth watching.

Not only is it another movie about lesbians wanting to get pregnant crap, but they actually want to get pregnant the old fashioned way." WTF???  

Great review though....I am just not convinced, to put it mildly.

- - - - - - - - - -

-Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

Who doesn't blog these days?

 

BetweenThaLines's picture

Love Raquel!

Submitted by
BetweenThaLines (353 posts)
on March 27, 2008 - 9:57am.

Just for that reason I'll buy it, haha! But anyway. The first time I saw Do I Love You I was like: what the hell is this?! But watching it more than once really made my love it. I'm sure I'll like this one too. I had no idea there was a sequal in the making, but I'm happy there is. I wonder though, what makes Raquel Cassidy decide to do these films? I mean, she's quite a well known actress, compared to the rest, at least that's what I think. You don't often see actresses like her go back to really low-budget films. Maybe Lisa is a friend of hers. Or she's just being awesome of course:p

http://www.youtube.com/BetweenThaLines

BAS's picture

Clearly the lesbians aren't very bright...

Submitted by
BAS (553 posts)
on March 31, 2008 - 1:11pm.

They want to conceive the old fashioned way and with genes that like each other? Seriously? Have you people taken a science class? And by you people, I mean the characters, in case that is not clear.

Yeah I am with most of the other posters - this movies sounds exactly like the tired old stereotypes. I can deal with lesbians having babies storylines especially if they are not the focus or if there is something different. For example Cashmere Mafia where one of them wasn't actually part of the whole thing, or the L word where they used the pregnancy issue to bring up race issues. But when it's the sole story....gah come on.

MJ's picture

honestly, overall the

Submitted by
MJ (3 posts)
on March 31, 2008 - 3:16pm.

honestly, overall the trailer didn't look that bad. eventually i might want to see this movie.

i think the hardest part for me to get around was (like previously mentioned) how their lesbians but want to get pregnant by having sex with a guy...

JenniOlsonSF's picture

You should actually see the movie

Submitted by
JenniOlsonSF (6 posts)
on April 1, 2008 - 4:59pm.

Wow! It's interesting to see how so many people want to chime in to say they don't THINK they'll like the movie even though they haven't seen it.

The plot aspect about wanting to get the sperm from an actual guy rather than a sperm bank is really quite amusing and introduces a whole additional level of emotional complexity into the story. If this were some Hollywood movie using that as a storyline I would definitely find it problematic. But it is independently made (written and directed by an absolute lesbian) and is a wonderful, smart, very original lesbian film.

Full disclosure: The director, Lisa Gornick is a dear friend of mine and I work for the company releasing the film on DVD in North America (Wolfe). 

rb23885's picture

I actually did see the movie

Submitted by
rb23885 (3 posts)
on May 15, 2008 - 12:47pm.
I saw the movie.  I thought the idea of making a baby the "old fashioned way" was a little odd for this day and age, but ok.  However, when Lisa Gornick's character, not her partner who wants to give birth, has sex with the guy; well let's just say I could find the old, 'all a lesbian needs is a good man', story line on just about any porn site. 

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