Parents' Guide to Forty Winks

This is a singular movie in the sense that it wants to be a unique, artistic, comedic dramedy about grief. But the film -- the feature directorial and screenwriting debut of William Atticus Parker (the son of Billy Crudup and Mary-Louise Parker) is also a litmus test for viewers. Forty Winks' polarizing nature might make it hard for it to win tons of fans and supporters; the characters are highly stylistic archetypes who are less focused on realistic behavior and more on cartoonish exaggeration -- in that, it has similarities to Quentin Tarantino or the Coen Brothers' writing. Like Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and the Coens' Barton Fink (the latter of which also features Forty Winks' co-star John Turturro), it's hard to piece out a clear throughline with character motivations or reasoning within Forty Winks' plot.

But if you're a fan of idiosyncratic films like those, then you might find yourself liking Forty Winks, too. Just because it's likely to be polarizing doesn't mean it won't have passionate defenders (especially considering that the cast includes Sarandon, Ejogo, and Turturro). Still, those defenders are likely to be viewers with highly specific tastes. For others, Forty Winks might fall a bit short on details and characterizations.