Independent Film Festival Boston 2009

Director Lee Toland Kreiger in attendance.

Dysfunctional families and Thanksgiving go together like turkey and mashed potatoes. The deeper the wounds, the more delicious it is to devour.

Writer/director Lee Toland Krieger's THE VICIOUS KIND is an incredibly tense family drama full of regret, hostility, and dark humor. Adam Scott plays Caleb, a complex and bitter New England construction worker who's fresh from a nasty breakup and resentful of everyone––especially women and his estranged father (J.K. Simmons). When Caleb picks up his younger brother Peter (Alex Frost) and Peter’s girlfriend Emma (Brittany Snow) from college for the holiday weekend, what sanity he has held together begins to unravel. Becoming obsessed with his brother's girlfriend, Caleb goes from humorously misogynistic to frighteningly self-destructive as he tries to cope with the anger and pain of distancing himself from his family––not to mention the loss of his cheating girlfriend.

In the tradition of Whit Stillman, Noah Baumbach, and Neil LaBute (who serves as executive producer), Krieger has created a film that mixes the rituals of relationship melodramas with a refreshing realism and biting wit.

- Dan McCallum