The Daytrippers

Monday, December 16, 2019

With its droll humor and bittersweet emotional heft, the feature debut of writer-director Greg Mottola announced the arrival of an unassumingly sharp-witted new talent on the 1990s indie film scene. When she discovers a love letter written to her husband (Stanley Tucci) by an unknown paramour, the distraught Eliza (Hope Davis) turns to her tight-knit Long Island family for advice. Soon the entire clan—strong-willed mom (Anne Meara), taciturn dad (Pat McNamara), and jaded sister (Parker Posey) with pretentious boyfriend (Liev Schreiber) in tow—has squeezed into a station wagon and headed into Manhattan to find out the truth, kicking off a one-crazy-day odyssey full of unexpected detours and life-changing revelations. Performed with deadpan virtuosity by a top-flight ensemble cast, THE DAYTRIPPERS is a wry and piercing look at family bonds stretched to the breaking point.

The new 4K transfer, overseen by writer-director Greg Mottola and The Critierion Collection’s Lee Kline, was made from the original 16mm camera negative, with the soundtrack remastered from the original 35mm magnetic tracks.

• Country USA/Canada
• Year 1996
• Running Time 87 minutes
• Distributor Janus
• Director Greg Mottola
• Writer Greg Mottola
• Editor Anne McCabe
• Cinematographer John Inwood
• Cast Parker Posey, Hope Davis, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci, Pat McNamara, Anne Meara, Campbell Scott

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.