Kate and Charlie like to have a good time. Their marriage thrives on a shared fondness for music, laughter… and getting smashed. When Kate’s partying spirals into hard-core asocial behavior, compromising her job as an elementary schoolteacher, something’s got to give. But change isn’t exactly a cakewalk. Sobriety means she will have to confront the lies she’s been spinning at work, her troubling relationship with her mother, and the nature of her bond with Charlie.
Acting
Winstead's drunk acting is so precise you'll forget it's acting.
Writing
Ponsoldt and Susan Burke wrote from lived recovery experience.
Direction
Intimate close-ups that feel like invading someone's actual morning.
Director
James Ponsoldt
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ponsoldt shot the AA scenes at actual meetings with real recovering addicts as extras—Winstead said it made her performance feel like 'stealing'.
This premiered at Sundance the same year as The Spectacular Now, which Ponsoldt also directed—dude had a whole 'young people destroying themselves beautifully' era.
US
