3 Backyards (2010)
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 17
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 1,041
My Rating
Movie Info
Three dark-hued tales of life in a seemingly quiet Long Island suburb collide in this ambitious drama from writer and director Eric Mendelsohn. John (Elias Koteas) and his wife (Kathryn Erbe) are clearly unhappy with one another, though they don't want to talk about what's wrong, and when his flight out of town is canceled at the last minute, John decides not to go home. Instead, he checks into a motel and spends his spare time wandering the neighborhood where he used to live. Peggy (Edie Falco)
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Cast
-
Embeth Davidtz
Actress -
Edie Falco
Peggy -
Elias Koteas
John -
Rachel Resheff
Christina -
Wesley Broulik
Big Man -
Kathryn Erbe
John's Wife -
Danai Jekesai Gurira
Woman in Blue Dress -
Anna Arvia
Heavyset Matron -
Randi Kaplan
Jill -
Pam La Testa
Waitress -
Sandor Tecsy
Gus -
Peyton R. List
Emily -
Dana Eskelson
Debbie -
Ron Phillips
Christina's Father -
Kathy Searle
Ticket Agent -
Joe Cipoletti
Janitor -
Louise Millman
Teacher -
John Monteleone
Janitor #2 -
Nicole Brending
Frazzled Housewife -
Mahadeo Shivraj
Bellhop #1 -
Edward A. Hajj
Bellhop #2 -
Frank Zanghini
Hotel Concierge -
Jeremy Rishe
Desk Clerk -
Judy Ross
Nathalie -
Jamel Rodriguez
Mechanic -
Victor Pagan
Man on Street -
-
Susan McBrien
Woman -
Antonio Ortiz
Juan -
Tasha Guevara
Mother #1 -
Catrina Ganey
Mother #2 -
Jessica Fernandez
Young Woman -
Nick Diamantis
Young Guy -
Cory Nichols
Peggy's Son -
Alicia Masten
Peggy's Daughter -
Paul Urcioli
Peggy's Husband
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3 Backyards Trailer & Photos
All Critics (17) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (4)
Mendelsohn's dialogue is, for the most part, as spare as poetry, and the three stories are woven together masterfully and acquire a gleaming aura that's almost pastoral.
Top CriticLittle is left to chance, and every detail contributes to a tightly schematic, microcosmic poetic concept.
Well-acted and acutely observed, the sort of cerebral fare you can more typically find on HBO than in theaters these days.
My mind kept wandering.
A story in which poor real folks are granted perspective only by brushing up against starlets, accidents, and villains of the tabloid press.
The movie has none of the smugness of American Beauty: You could dream of living in a world like this.
This dark, well-acted suburban tale is follow-up to the gifted Mendleson's most promising feature debut
And although Mendelsohn maintains a certain cool detachment, he also allows the film to occasionally soar in unexpected ways.
Mendelsohn may believe he's presenting an unvarnished look at middle-class America, but if these kinds of people exist, you won't recognize them.
Unlike those indie directors whose feel-good, P.C. claptrap predictably gets praised by the very people it flatters, Mendelsohn makes suburban poetry that opposes the way middle-class film culture likes to fantasize itself.
It may not be the Long Island the natives are more accustomed to, but that sense of place from a prism of both wonderment and despair, is deep into the moment of those physical and human worlds alike, playing out sensually and emotionally in suburbia.
Three lives intersect over the course of a fall day in Long Island in Eric Mendelsohn's dazzling and delicate independent drama 3 Backyards.
Tries to give suburban malaise a fresh spin with dreamlike visuals and overbearing music.
At once lyrical and mysterious, familiar yet enigmatic...It's a movie that raises more questions than it answers. It leaves you feeling haunted and touched.
Eric Mendelsohn's first film since 1999's Judy Berlin suggests Little Children as helmed by a nature documentarian.
An exquisitely observed slice-of-life with a genuinely transporting feel for its setting. Sumptuously dreamlike and compellingly elusive.
Mendelsohn refuses to satirize suburbia, or to take it too seriously. What he does do is present very real souls who just happen to live in this kind of community with compassion and understanding.
Audience Reviews for 3 Backyards
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The thing I like most about "3 Backyards" are its moments of silence that not only allow the actors to take control but also say more than any of the dialogue does. What the movie comes tantalizingly close to depicting is the emptiness of suburban lives, as the distance between people only allows them to watch each other, not connect.(There is one moment of dislocation that is probably more accidental than anything else.) However, none of that is as interesting as it sounds here, as the movie lacks anything in the way of well-defined characters.