Panida hosts 'The Meddler' and 'Taming of the Shrew'

The Meddler is holding up that softening filter through which each of us sees the funny, maddening, indispensable people with whom we laugh, mourn and, if we’re lucky, find love

Susan Sarandon leads along a strong cast in this mother-daughter drama that becomes something very special. The Meddler opens Thursday at the Panida and Sarandon delivers one of her juiciest roles in years at the mother, Marnie Minervini. Her character comes complete with a New Jersey accent as a widow who travels to Los Angeles to be near her daughter Lori (Rose Byrne) who is a screenwriter. As the trailer teases mom’s meddling includes phone calls, unexpected drop ins, texts, and a bit of snooping. Thankfully though the writer and director, Lorene Scafaria, brings to light more than the cliche of a meddling mom.

A script she wrote out of her own experiences with her mom, it is also heartwarming and touches on the difficulties mothers face from a older perspective. A familiar mom trait though can be seen when Marnie focuses on others at the expense of, and convenience of, not focusing on herself. When her daughter insists on setting boundaries she then turns her sights to others who she can focus her time and energies on. Marnie may appear clueless as she pursues helping others but then the spotlight is turned back on her. When Zipper (J.K. Sim-mons) comes on the scene he has that familiar charming smile but as with his other previous character he has a few emotional scars and portrays them well. Often when we loose someone we love we go through an identity crisis until we get the course readjusted and find our way again. The grief of loosing a husband/father from different angles. Marnie finds ways to channel her eternal optimism and forceful generosity to change the lives of others - as well as her own- and in the process finds a new purpose in life. The film is rated PG13 for brief drug content.

The film is showing today, July 8, at 5:30 p.m. (happy hour starts at 5:01 p.m.); Saturday, July 9, at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 10, at 3:30 p.m.

Also showing this weekend at the Panida the next film —“The Taming of the Shrew” — in the free admission BBC Shakespeare series. The funniest most modern of the series comes to life this Sunday night in their free-to-the-public Panida’s Summer Shakespeare series Sunday at 6:30 p.m.

Information: www.panida.org