Petunia

A pitch-perfect satire about a Manhattan family that puts the “fun” in dysfunction, Ash Christian's Petunia is a striking comedy featuring a sharp and talented cast led by the perennially underrated Christine Lahti as Felicia Petunia, a psychotherapist in a dormant marriage to another shrink (David Rasche), watching helplessly as her three grown, quirky sons try to cope with the world of sex and relationships—for which they are woefully ill-prepared. Charlie Petunia (Tobias Segal) is gay and abstinent, the latter a lifestyle choice that unravels when he meets the bisexual George (Michael Urie), who happens to be married to the love-starved Robin (Brittany Snow). Charlie's brother, Michael (Eddie Kaye Thomas), has just married the cynical Vivian (Thora Birch), who is carrying a child that might have been fathered by Charlie and Michael's sex-obsessed brother, Adrian (Jimmy Heck). Filmmaker Christian's darkly comic, absurdist tone works precisely because it never undercuts the real pathos beneath so much family craziness. Recommended. (T. Keogh)