An intimate documentary, Our American Family hopes to give the addiction epidemic a human face. The film opens and ends with footage of a rainy city street, with maudlin music playing, but for the most part, directors Harry Adelman and Sean King O’Grady are filming his sixsomes in Philadelphia. It wisely focuses on family stories.
This documentary pays particular attention to the matrilineal ties of the clans. As the film begins, 29-year-old Nicole is recovering from her overdose and has to move to her nearby rehab clinic. She leaves her infant with her mother Linda. Nicole is a veteran of the recovery program and faces her own crisis with her clear eyes and joking demeanor.
Also living under Linda’s roof are her husband (and Nicole’s stepfather), Brian, and Nicole’s two brothers, Chris and Stephen. This is a stalwart group prone to quarrels, and the filmmakers frame a series of arguments, tense arguments and outbursts almost constantly. Among the many celebrities, yoga instructor Linda is tasked with keeping the peace in her home.
As the families speak openly to each other and in narrated testimony, the film’s freshest insight lies in its comparison of addiction and cancer. Only one is stigmatized. But for some of the family, the analogy goes so far. Cancer patients “don’t touch their wallets while they sleep,” he countered, adding that they “couldn’t be arrested for trying to buy chemotherapy drugs.” That’s “part of the effects of the disease,” retorts Linda.
The filmmakers left these tensions unresolved. Addiction is a complex and challenging topic, and “Our American Family” handles it gracefully with its sharp idiosyncrasies.
our american family
Unrated. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. at the theater.