'Family Squares' Review: A Family Deals With Loss During COVID In Stephanie Laing's Zany Comedy Filled With Plenty Of Sincere Moments

Arlington TX

27 February, 2022

7:21 PM

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By Joe Friar, Fort Worth Report February 26, 2022 Writer-director Stephanie Laing has assembled a terrific group of actors for her latest feature "Family Squares" which takes place during COVID lockdown. Zoom plays an important role in the comedy centered on family matriarch Mabel Worth (June Squibb) who gathers her son (Henry Winkler) and daughter (Margo Martindale) and their extended families for a video conference to announce that she's about to die. Secrets are revealed, hilarity ensues, and beneath all the bickering and madcap moments of comedy, a touching film emerges exposing the unconditional love at the heart of every family. Do you find it surprising that the current pandemic has been featured in only a handful of films over the last two years? Me neither. Nobody wants to be reminded about COVID. Most of the films lean toward "miss" on the hit-and-miss scale, yet Laing's new feature gravitates to "hit" thanks to the superb cast and the delicate nature of the film inspired by the filmmaker's personal experience after losing her mom while they were FaceTiming. Easily this could have been a tearjerker, but anyone who has ever lost a loved one can tell you that underneath the sadness, levity arises in the form of shared memories that sometimes focus on the dumb things from our family's past. Suddenly the grievances with each other seem inconsequential. "Family Squares" focuses on the absurdity born out of sorrow leading to some very funny moments handled with the right amount of delicacy by Laing. Narrated by Rob Reiner simply because, who wouldn't want Rob Reiner to narrate their film? His voiceover isn't necessary but he's a welcomed addition to the fine cast that apart from Winkler and Martindale include Judy Greer, Scott MacArthur, Billy Magnussen, Timothy Simons, and Casey Wilson as the grown grandkids. With Elsie Fisher from "Eighth Grade" and MacLaren Laing as Mabel's great-grandchildren. The wonderful Ann Dowd ("Mass") plays Mabel's wife who is isolated in New York. She of course is an equal and beloved member of the family although she's been left out of the funeral arrangements. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.