A diligent effort in indie improv filmmaking, Alejandro Adams' Around the Bay intelligently plays at the disintegration of family in the face of struggling business in the Silicon Valley.

Disaffect and self-absorption play a central role in this story about a wayward Los Gatos family. Daisy (very well played by Katherine Celio) lives in an unnamed town, works at a grocery store, and casually missed fall's college enrollment deadline. Fortunately (or unfortunately) her errant father, Wyatt (glassily portrayed by Steve Voldseth) whom she hasn't seen for the last decade, has just lost his girlfriend and his presumably high paying Silicon Valley job in the same week. Ill equipped to care for his nearly unbearable and yet empathy inspiring son Noah (also well played by Connor Maselli) he invites daughter Daisy to give Noah his "three meals a day." She concedes and comes to stay in his guest house, beautifully attired and poetically divorced from the hollow, family nest. Wyatt contends that five-year-old Noah is self-governing and "knows himself," a view that accounts for Noah's aggression and unwillingness to befriend kindly Daisy.

Like a lot of improvised dialogue, the conversations take on an inchoate air of meaninglessness, saying much and saying nothing at the same time. This paired with Adams' repeated use of Steven Soderbergh style (or should I say "Lindsay Anderson" style?) non-sync sound gives the characters and their messy attempts at communication a feeling that everyone is at sea with no anchors in sight. Adding further to weightlessness and the volatility is Adams' metaphorical use of water. Noah swims, Daisy reads by the pool, Wyatt spends endless moments in the overly attired shower. Captured largely in mediums and close-ups one even senses a dreadful sort of floating when Daisy takes the train with Noah to unknown destinations, or when Wyatt's traveling in his car towards but another ill fated meeting with investors.

Performances are consistent and dialogue, though sometimes a bit thin, is really intelligent. Voldseth's Wyatt is a perfect shell of a man. Trying little he seems to have made his fame skirting reality and Daisy, who turned out well (raised by her mother), is the only person willing to call him on his disingenuousness. Though his last moments are ones of remorse, one can't feel as though his justice is one he'll really aim to grow from--and cued by Celio's response to him, it's pretty clear that whether or not he mends his ways, the damage is pretty well done.

[Reprinted from Rotten Tomatoes]