Easy Living (2017)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

At first glance, "Easy Living" appears to a Lifetime-style film about a woman who is highly motivated to turn her life around. Her alcoholism led her to abandon her daughter to the care and upbringing of her sister. But now, Sherry is now a dynamic direct-to-consumer salesperson of cosmetics.In the opening scene of the film, the protagonist confidently proclaims that "I am the architect of my life." Her motivational practices have clearly instilled in her some good skills in sales, as she works efficiently in knocking on doors and making some earnings on commission.But as the film develops, we see another, insecure side of Sherry where she resides in a motel, picks up men in bars, and has failed over a ten-year period to contribute financially to the upbringing of her daughter. Sherry is sensitive to a stray dog and has genuine rapport with her clients. But to the people who matter most in her life, she is oddly distant. It doesn't help that she is drinking heavily and avoiding her AA meetings.There was a salient moment in the film where Sherry walks into the bedroom of her sister to borrow a shirt, so she can have a tryst with a man who has yet to finalize his divorce. When Sherry opens the drawer, she discovers her sister's gun and holds it up to the mirror, as if preparing to shoot. By that time in the film, Sherry is so unpredictable that basically anything can happen, especially when she takes the gun with her without informing the sister.As it turns out, the gun figures prominently in the bizarre conclusion of the film. The ending involves a plot twist that makes the film inherently dishonest. One question to ponder at the end is the following: There are instances when people have won lotteries, and their lives take an ironic turn for the worse because of their good luck. It should be fairly clear that if Sherry won a Powerball jackpot, she would eventually return to reside in the shabby motel room.

I stumbled upon this gem of an indie by Adam Keleman and anchored by the phenomenal acting of Caroline Dhavernas. The film was incredibly well written and directed, and the acting by Caroline Dhavernas was more than impressive. I found that the struggles of the main character, Sherry, who perhaps was quite misunderstood, as she tried to find her way, were very relatable. Sherry was ambitious in her career and very caring, as was evidenced in numerous scenes, but at the same time struggled to actually find herself and figure out a way to attain the things she truly wanted out of life. I look forward to more projects from Adam Keleman, Caroline Dhavernas, the supporting cast and crew (the cinematography was remarkably impressive - particularly for what I understand was a no to low budget film) those that are already accomplished and those that are just making a name for themselves.

Enjoyed this indie. Great character study of unique woman. Everyone can identify w their own life w lousy times. Caroline provided outstanding acting. She showed her true range. The supporting cast are stabilizing characters to the main character. Nice that it previewed at several film festivals. Nice first movie for new writer/director Adam Keleman. Looking forward to his next project.

The story is about a woman with a very sad life and she's looking for a way to make money. This is such a bad movie. I can't believe I watched this till the end. It is absolutely not a comedy and I don't know why it's written in its description. It's very sad and it's not exciting at all. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.