October Offerings Part 3: The Persian Version & Dicks: The Musical

From the ridiculous to the sublime - the final two films I saw this month vary widely in tone and gender dynamics, but they are both wonderfully entertaining in their own way. Whether you want to watch two adult men Parent Trap their insane parents, or watch an Iranian-American lesbian learn to appreciate her mother's background, you're going to have a very unique experience at the theater.

Dicks: The Musical: Written by Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson (who also star in the film), and directed by Larry Charles, this is a supremely silly movie (based off their supremely silly off-Broadway musical) about two very straight white men in New York (they are gay in real life, which is why their attempts at playing straight are called out right away in the opening credits) who are top salesmen for their respective companies. When those companies merge, they are pitted against each other and become bitter rivals. But they look like each other (they don't actually, but they are supposed to be identical twins, so just roll with it OK!) and eventually realize that they were separated at birth. What follows is a ridiculous musical where these two men get to meet their parents, played by the insanely well-cast Megan Mullaly and Nathan Lane, and come up with a plan to bring the two of them back together again.

Listen, your mileage is definitely going to vary with this movie. But it's barely 90 minutes, so even if you hate it, you won't have to endure it for very long. It is extremely bizarre, very New York, and oh, did I mention that Bowen Yang also plays God in it? Like, the literal God. I cannot over-emphasize the silliness. But it's kind of amazing that this movie exists and it is a campy ridiculous good time. And the closing credits feature a lovely blooper reel where Nathan Lane has a moment where he just goes, "I can't believe I'm in this movie." Neither can I, Nathan, neither can I.

The Persian Version: Immigrants, roll on up to see this film, because it will blow you away. It is a very specific story, but tells a very universal tale of growing up in America when your parents have grown up somewhere else and trying to reconcile those two identities. It also offers up a tender portrait of the harsh relationship mothers and daughters can have, that is only resolved when you sit down and think about what exactly your mother's life was like before she moved to America. Written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz, this is a supremely beautiful, funny, and touching movie about women (Muslim women in particular!), and the resilience that is the foundation of any immigrant's journey across the globe.

The cast of this film is particularly wondrous - Layla Mohammadi plays Leila, an Iranian-American filmmaker in Brooklyn who is the ninth child of her family: the only daughter and a lesbian to boot. She and her mother have experienced a significant rift because her mother did not approve of her marriage to another woman, and their differences seem irreconcilable. But as the movie progresses, we watch Leila's journey, and how it eventually parallels her own mother's journey as a young girl in Iran. It's a bittersweet story, told with a great deal of heart and humor, and Niousha Noor's performance as Leila's mother, Shireen (as well as Kamand Shafieisabet's performance as her younger self in Iran), is remarkable. In a particularly profound moment, Shireen, who becomes a realtor, sells a storefront to an Indian immigrant in New Jersey who sets up the first Patel Brothers in the state. She believes in helping out other immigrants and that one moment was all I needed to stop seeing this film as an Iranian movie, and see it as a movie about the melting pot. This is also a beautifully shot film, with many artistic scenes and flourishes that make me very excited to see more of Keshavarz's work. Immigrants, we get the job done!