FANTASY LIFE

After losing his job as a paralegal, Sam Stein (Matthew Shear) suffers a panic attack and stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist’s three granddaughters. The girls’ mother, Dianne (Amanda Peet), is an actor whose once-promising career has stalled; she’s in a difficult marriage to David, a rock bassist. When David goes abroad on tour, Dianne and Sam discover an easy rapport as well as a shared history of mental illness. Sam joins Dianne’s family to babysit for the summer on Martha’s Vineyard, and he ends up in a house with the woman he pines for, her husband, the three kids, and all four grandparents, including his psychiatrist. A smart, romantic dramedy co-starring Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Jessica Harper, Zosia Mamet, and Holland Taylor. Winner of the Narrative Feature Audience Award at South by Southwest.