Reverse The Curse

Reverse the Curse is a 2023 comedy-drama-romance film directed by David Duchovny. The story follows Ted (played by Logan Marshall-Green), a failed writer-turned-Yankees Stadium peanut slinger. When Ted learns of his Red Sox-obsessed father Marty’s (played by David Duchovny) failing health, he moves back home. Marty strives to make amends for his past, and his health takes a hit whenever his beloved Sox lose a game.

Reverse The Curse Review

Suck it up. Life’s hard.

It’s no wonder that Reverse The Curse came and went without fanfare or much notice. Unlike many films of its ilk, it’s not a self-indulgent vanity project meant to atone for the sins of fathers everywhere, nor is it a grand spiritual epic designed to find meaning in magic cornfields and baseball diamonds. Most importantly, it’s not a touchy-feely feminine retcon of masculinity. Instead, it’s a small and slightly unfocused film that doesn’t try to be all things to all people but still admirably captures the messiness of the relationships of many fathers and sons.

Reverse The Curse is a movie in delicious conflict with itself. As Duchovny’s Marty looks back on his life and finds it wanting of both meaning and purpose, fathers everywhere will identify with (to different degrees) the pain he feels at his own inadequacy: the guilt of a missed ball game or school play, the shame of choosing TV over a game catch after a long and grueling day, and the desire to leave a meaningful legacy via one’s son. At the same time, Logan Marshall-Green’s Ted, Marty’s son, stands as both a cautionary tale of the importance of fatherhood and an uncomfortable reminder of being on the receiving end of a dad who was just a man.

And that’s really the crux of Reverse The Curse. It’s not necessary to see oneself in every aspect of each of its main characters. It’s doubtful that many women will be able to fully appreciate the nuance and camaraderie built from mercilessly busting one another’s balls or what it means for a grown son to first see his father as a human being, and how it can completely change his perspective on his own childhood, nor is it likely that every male viewer will be able to identify with a father wholly checked out from his son’s life. Instead, the film paints a portrait of flawed humanity filtered through a uniquely male perspective that audience members can munch on a la carte.

Reverse The Curse is a quiet film that doesn’t try to change the world by Times Square-messaging the secrets of the universe. It’s a cautionary tale about not letting fear and selfishness rob two people of the beauty of one another’s lives and of what it means to love your son and to be loved by your dad.

It has its contrivances, Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz’s character could have been completely omitted without losing anything, and its gimmick fizzles quickly. However, the film’s bones are strong, and it’s a well-paced little piece whose two leads nail every moment they share. For fathers of sons and sons of fathers, it’s Worth it as a rental.

WOKE ELEMENTS

1977?

• The film’s opening scene portrays a book publisher who, while well-performed and moderately funny, behaves in a way that doesn’t fit with gals from the late 70s. It seems like a part originally written for a man.
  • She puts down Ted’s whiteness as though it was a detriment to creativity and quality writing, even though she then references other white male authors as examples of excellence.

Mother &#@<34

• There’s a recurring “gag” in which a young child is given permission to curse as much as he wants. It quickly devolves from “booby-penis” to repeated F-bombs. It might have been accomplished with some creative sound editing, but it sure seemed as though the boy was saying it.
  • There are few things more woke than not projecting children but actively soliciting one (I mean the filmmakers, not the characters) to tarnish himself thusly qualifies.
    • It’s not a main thrust of the film and ends relatively quickly, so I didn’t ding the score much for it.