WHEN REALITY BECAME ENTERTAINMENT, EVERYTHING CHANGED.

In 1971, filmmaker Craig Gilbert (James Gandolfini) manages to talk the Loud family into letting his camera into their lives, but one of the world’s first reality series turns into a phenomenon they can’t handle… The story of An American Family, the sensational PBS 12-episode series that documented a failing marriage and turned the couple’s oldest son into a gay icon, benefits from Shari Springer-Berman and Robert Pulcini’s own experience as documentary filmmakers; scenes from An American Family blend seamlessly with the fictionalized version. Riveting stuff, with gorgeous period details, and a particularly good performance by Diane Lane.

2011-U.S. Made for TV. 90 min. Color. Produced by Karyn McCarthy. Directed by Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini. Teleplay: David Seltzer. Cast: Diane Lane (Pat Loud), Tim Robbins (Bill Loud), James Gandolfini (Craig Gilbert), Thomas Dekker, Patrick Fugit, Kathleen Quinlan… Lolita Davidovich.

Last word: “All of the actors had this wealth of material for the people they were representing and they became very protective of them and their perspective because there was a ‘Rashomon’ quality to this story. It’s like if you talk to anyone who was involved you’re going to get a different take. For us it was really trying to find a balanced way to represent the story that wasn’t pointing the finger too far in any direction. I mean ultimately it’s Pat Loud’s story but we really wanted to hear all sides.” (Pulcini, The Playlist)

ABOVE AVERAGE

IMDb