The Daytrippers [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Greg Mottola

Overview

The debut from writer/director Greg Mottola, The Daytrippers follows a Long Island family as they make a disastrous journey into New York City. The impetus is a love letter discovered by suburbanite Eliza (Hope Davis) which seemingly incriminates her publisher husband Louis (Stanley Tucci) in an extramarital affair. To solve the mystery, Eliza, her parents (Anne Meara and Pat McNamara), her oddball sister Jo (Parker Posey) and Jo's boyfriend Carl (Liev Schreiber) all pile into the family station wagon in a misbegotten attempt to track Louis down. Beginning as a playful, satiric look at family dynamics, The Daytrippers occasionally loses its way, becoming increasingly dark and venomous as it rushes towards the revelations of its final moments. For all of its flaws, however, it's often an engaging debut.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/12/2019
UPC:	0715515237116
Original Release:	1996
Rating:	R
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	13,801

Special Features

SDH Subtitles; New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Greg Mottola, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack; New audio commentary featuring Mottola, editor Anne McCabe, and producer Steven Soderbergh ; New interviews with Mottola and actors Hope Davis, Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber, and Campbell Scott; The Hatbox, a 1985 short film by Mottola, with audio commentary by the director

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Hope Davis	Eliza D'Amico
Stanley Tucci	Louis D'Amico
Parker Posey	Jo Malone
Liev Schreiber	Carl
Anne Meara	Rita Malone
Pat McNamara	Jim Malone
Campbell Scott	Eddie
Douglas McGrath	Chap
Marcia Gay Harden	Libby
Andy Brown	Ronnie
Paul Herman	Leon, Ronnie's Father
Marc Grapey	Aaron, the Book Publicist
Marcia Haufrecht	Molly
Carol Locatell	Doris
Amy Stiller	Amy Corinne Fairbright-Lebow
Stephanie Venditto	Cassandra, the Receptionist
Peter Askin	Nick Woodman
Adam Davidson	Libby's Ex-Boyfriend
Jill Rowe	Monica
Tracey Barry	Monica's Friend
Ford Evanson	Sandy
Richard Martinez	Composer

Technical Credits

Greg Mottola

Campbell Scott	Executive Producer
David Heyman	Executive Producer
Lawrence S. Kamerman	Executive Producer
Steven Soderbergh	Producer
Nancy Tenenbaum	Producer
Sheila Jaffe	Casting
Georgianne Walken	Casting
Greg Mottola	Screenwriter
David Powers	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

First time writer/director Greg Mottola deftly turns the limitations of low-budget filmmaking into an artistic advantage in this hit comedy: what better metaphor for the physical and emotional claustrophobia of family life than the dilapidated station wagon that serves as the film's main location? Hope Davis is a Long Island housewife who discovers a mysterious love letter written to her husband (Stanley Tucci) and heads to Manhattan to track him down. The rub: her contentious family -- dad (Pat McNamara), mom (Anne Meara), sister (Parker Posey) and sis's boyfriend (Liev Schreiber) -- come along for the ride. From this rather implausible premise, Mottola manages to spin a warm, funny, perceptive film that boasts great performances from everyone involved. Posey is at her bitchy best, and the understated Davis is touching as a woman whose marriage is poised to implode. The Daytrippers shifts from humor to poignancy with amazing ease, proving like all good road movies, that it's not the arrival at a destination that counts as much as the discoveries made along the way.