It’s a fascinating thing to watch a director’s work evolve over a 10-year period, particularly if the director is a woman moving from her 20s to her 30s, the pressing concerns changing with every year. Marianna Palka debuted in 2008 with her film “Good Dick,” exploring the relationship between a dysfunctional young video-store clerk and a man who rents his porn from her. It’s a darkly comic film obsessed with the desperation of youth and the desire for connection, themes that found its way into her next two films, “I’m the Same” and “Always Worthy.”
But something has shifted in Palka’s work in the past few years, a change marked with 2017’s “Bitch,” about a stay-at-home mom who snaps and begins acting like a rabid dog. This is a film searching to examine the deficiencies of traditional gender dynamics in marriage and family, poking holes in...
But something has shifted in Palka’s work in the past few years, a change marked with 2017’s “Bitch,” about a stay-at-home mom who snaps and begins acting like a rabid dog. This is a film searching to examine the deficiencies of traditional gender dynamics in marriage and family, poking holes in...
- 1/17/2019
- by April Wolfe
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Egg, the satire on motherhood helmed by Marianna Palka the premiered this year at the Tribeca Film Festival. Christina Hendricks, Alysia Reiner and Anna Camp star in the comedy, which will now hit theaters January 18 day-and-date with a digital release.
Penned by Risa Mickenberg, the plot centers on fearless conceptual artist Tina (Reiner) and her passive-aggressive feminist husband (Gbenga Akinnagbe), who invite her 8-months-pregnant art school rival (Hendricks) and her power hungry, new money husband (David Alan Basche) to their Bushwick loft. They surprise them with Tina’s new work-in-progress: a radical alternative to motherhood. But when their sensuous, non-traditional surrogate (Camp) arrives, the truth outs, and they all must face their own ridiculous and sometimes heartbreaking shortcomings.
Former Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless, Reiner and Basche are producers.
“We are excited to continue our relationship with director Marianna Palka in...
Penned by Risa Mickenberg, the plot centers on fearless conceptual artist Tina (Reiner) and her passive-aggressive feminist husband (Gbenga Akinnagbe), who invite her 8-months-pregnant art school rival (Hendricks) and her power hungry, new money husband (David Alan Basche) to their Bushwick loft. They surprise them with Tina’s new work-in-progress: a radical alternative to motherhood. But when their sensuous, non-traditional surrogate (Camp) arrives, the truth outs, and they all must face their own ridiculous and sometimes heartbreaking shortcomings.
Former Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless, Reiner and Basche are producers.
“We are excited to continue our relationship with director Marianna Palka in...
- 10/23/2018
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Setting up a cultural clash between two 40-something college pals, their partners, and a surrogate, Marianna Palka’s black comedy Egg, like her previous horror/comedy Bitch, sets its aim squarely on the patriarchy and the norms of motherhood. Written by Risa Mickenberg and mostly set entirely within the walls of a Brooklyn loft, Egg uses the traditional form of the sitcom to explore the life choices of free spirit artist Tina (Alysia Reiner) and Karen (Christina Hendricks), the wife of a business woman who isn’t as prepared to engage with “motherhood” as a political statement as her friend. Karen’s partner is a sports-obsessed alpha male, Don (David Alan Basche), a real estate developer who’s uncomfortable in this un-gentrified corner of Brooklyn. Tina’s husband Wayne (Gbenga Akinnagbe) is a freelancer comfortable rocking a “patriarchy is a bitch” t-shirt while biking around with Tina.
Starting as fodder...
Starting as fodder...
- 4/29/2018
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
Casually cruel, two old art-school friends face off in Egg, a small-scale satirical drama about motherhood, female friendship and marriage. Tina (Alysia Reiner), who is having a child via a surrogate, tells the pregnant Karen (Christina Hendricks) that she couldn’t stand having someone hanging off her breast all day. Karen retaliates that being pregnant makes her feel like a celebrity, and that she’s sorry for people who don’t have children. With a great deal of daring and more modest accomplishment, director Marianna Palka (the 2017 Sundance film Bitch) and first-time screenwriter Risa Mickenberg confront and undermine the cliches of the...
- 4/23/2018
- by Caryn James
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Filmmaker Marianna Palka has spent the past decade of her career dipping into various genres and finding the space to tell intimate stories in each, from her debut dramatic romance “Good Dick” to last year’s biting midnight offering “Bitch,” and her latest film only continues that trend. “Egg” shows the Scottish actor-director’s continuing ability to ground her films with strong character work and a buoyant sense of humor.
Written by first-time screenwriter Risa Mickenberg, the movie follows a pair of mismatched pals whose conflicting ideas about motherhood screw up an ordinary dinner party in unexpected ways. Starring Christina Hendricks and Alysia Reiner (who also produced the film) as old friends from art school whose paths diverged, the actresses maintain the uneasy chemistry of two people who used to know each other very well, and aren’t quite sure how to rekindle their bond. Tina (Reiner) has stayed in the art world,...
Written by first-time screenwriter Risa Mickenberg, the movie follows a pair of mismatched pals whose conflicting ideas about motherhood screw up an ordinary dinner party in unexpected ways. Starring Christina Hendricks and Alysia Reiner (who also produced the film) as old friends from art school whose paths diverged, the actresses maintain the uneasy chemistry of two people who used to know each other very well, and aren’t quite sure how to rekindle their bond. Tina (Reiner) has stayed in the art world,...
- 4/22/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Receiving Risa Mickenberg’s script for Egg—premiering this week in Tribeca—director Marianna Palka had an instant, strong reaction to the material, recognizing something that had the potential to be really special.
“David [Alan Basche] and Alysia [Reiner] sent me the script, and I was, I think, 19 pages into the script when I said I wanted to do it, because I realized it was going to change the world. Because it’s so beautiful,” Palka told Deadline this morning in Tribeca, appearing with stars Reiner, Basche, Christina Hendricks and Gbenga Akinnagbe. “It’s about two women and their friends, and it’s such a wonderful time to explore the themes that the movie brings up. I think it was my favorite project I’ve done so far.”
An intimate chamber piece shot with a small cast inside a bohemian loft, Egg centers on the reunion of two artistic couples who get into...
“David [Alan Basche] and Alysia [Reiner] sent me the script, and I was, I think, 19 pages into the script when I said I wanted to do it, because I realized it was going to change the world. Because it’s so beautiful,” Palka told Deadline this morning in Tribeca, appearing with stars Reiner, Basche, Christina Hendricks and Gbenga Akinnagbe. “It’s about two women and their friends, and it’s such a wonderful time to explore the themes that the movie brings up. I think it was my favorite project I’ve done so far.”
An intimate chamber piece shot with a small cast inside a bohemian loft, Egg centers on the reunion of two artistic couples who get into...
- 4/21/2018
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
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