SFIFF Review: A KID LIKE JAKE: Parsons & Danes Impress In This Family Drama

A Kid Like Jake marks writer and director Silas Howard‘s solo directorial debut. The Transparent helmer had only co-directed features prior to this film, including the SXSW Emerging Visions-nominated film Sunset Stories. Premiering at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, A Kid Like Jake made its next stop on the festival circuit at the San Francisco International Film Festival, opening the festival on April 4, 2018 to a sold out crowd with Howard in attendance.

Jake (Leo James Davis) is different than most of the other kids. He is described as having a unique imagination. However, Jake’s ipseity reaches far beyond imagination. Jake engages in gender nonconforming play, owns every cartoon Disney fairytale on DVD, and frequently dresses as a girl. His parents, Alex (Claire Danes) and Greg Wheeler (Jim Parsons), have known about Jake’s gender nonconforming tendencies for a long time. However, when it’s time to apply to elementary schools, and Jake’s preschool director, Judy (Octavia Spencer), brings Jake’s differences to the forefront, Alex and Greg are forced with the tough decision to either start setting boundaries for Jake, limiting who he is, or let him be himself.

Rather than tell the gender nonconforming experience from a struggling child’s perspective, A Kid Like Jake portrays the idiosyncrasies and external conflicts that come with having a special child, that two struggling, supportive parents deal with on a day-to-day basis. The film’s fantastic writing and dialogue are a testament to Daniel Pearle‘s abilities, who adapted his screenplay from a play he had written.

How Do We Market Jake?

Sadly, in applying to any school, one needs to market themselves like a product, sell themselves with their best sales pitch, highlighting their attributes. This can be difficult when one’s true self doesn’t fit the mold, or fit in with the culture of the school they are applying to. In A Kid Like Jake, Alex and Greg want to put Jake in a private school and provide him with the best childhood education possible. Despite Alex being a lawyer and Greg a therapist, they essentially need financial aid to afford a private education for Jake. Judy explains to the parents that they should highlight Jake’s “gender expansive play.”

At first, Alex is offended by this; she thinks it sounds wrong to bring up something so personal, and even offensively presumes that Judy wants to take this route because of her sexuality. Alex is conflicted and confused. She is at once protective of Jake’s originality and defensive of his differences. She begins lashing out. She grows upset with her best friend, Amal (Priyanka Chopra), who breaks her trust and tells her ignorant boyfriend (Aasif Mandvi) about Jake’s play. She even calls out Greg for never playing catch with Jake, as if to say he’s the reason Jake is into feminine things.

At first, Alex and Greg are resistant to the idea of marketing Jake as a gender nonconformist, and begin to try to control Jake’s nature. They’ve encouraged Jake’s gender-bending play until now. They suddenly wonder if it’s just a phase, or if it is up to them to try and mold Jake’s personality. Limiting Jake as a person has consequences; he begins getting into trouble at school and beyond.

During an interview for one of their top choices for elementary schools, Jake gets into a shoving match because he was being teased by choosing to be The Little Mermaid during playtime with another girl. Alex and Greg don’t let Jake dress up as Rapunzel for Halloween. His tantrums get worse. He throws his favorite Cinderella figurine at his grandmother (Ann Dowd). However, things hit a boiling point when Jake is called a “fag” at his birthday party.

This sparks the realization for Alex and Greg that what Jake is experiencing is of more importance than their own self-conscious worries. Let Jake be Jake. And let his support group help him, and, subsequently, help them. There is a touching moment towards the end, during which Alex watches Cinderella. She explains that Cinderella may appear to be abused and neglected, but she has this whole entourage of animals that take care of her. It’s a clever little metaphor for Jake and the surrounding love he has in his life.

The Rigorousness Of School Applications

There was a time when parents and children didn’t have to worry excessively about applying for schools until college approached around junior year of high school. Nowadays, it costs an arm and a leg, financially and emotionally, to apply for even preschool, let alone elementary school. Alex and Greg are put through the application process ringer; A Kid Like Jake highlights the particularity of the application process, even for something as seemingly banal as elementary school. Today, all levels of school are wildly competitive.

Applications take a gigantic toll on Alex and Greg. They argue over parental philosophies, begin blaming each other for various things, and, above all, it stresses them out significantly. The entire process eats away at newly-pregnant Alex the most, mentally and physically; the added anxiety begins to affect both her mind and body. Eventually, in A Kid Like Jake, Alex and Greg take their frustrations out on each other in one, giant argument, showcasing Danes and Parsons‘ respective ranges.

Top Notch Cast & Crew

Danes carries some of the neuroticism from her Carrie Mathison character over to the role of Alex Wheeler, but, other than that, most of what she brings to the table is taken from new material for the veteran actor. She is equal parts tough and commandeering and tender and sweet. As Greg Wheeler, Parsons arguably displays more range than he ever has. His character is a soft-spoken, gentle, and mild-mannered man, and Parsons plays him with reservation and nuance. Although, in the third act, he turns up the volume significantly on his performance, matching Danes‘ intensity.

A Kid Like Jake was shot on location in Brooklyn. Howard knows how to light an urban environment; along with cinematographer Steven Capitano Calitri (Broad City), he offers some great lighting and shots of an urban setting. Michael Taylor (Walking Out) provides the film with a fluid kind of editing that almost gives it a mumblecore-esque feel. Indeed, A Kid Like Jake flows from scene to scene as if it were a more refined offspring of the mumblecore generation.

Conclusion: A Kid Like Jake

As excellent as A Kid Like Jake is, the viewer is left with very few scenes that focus on Jake himself. At times, one may wish that the film would take a break from focusing on the perspective of parents, and show more of the film from the perspective of Jake.

Nonetheless, A Kid Like Jake feels sincerely authentic, and marks a promising solo debut for Howard. It’s essential that more films about the LGBTQ community continue to get made, and this film is a worthy entry into a prestigious genre of cinema that is responsible for some of the finest films to be released in the last decade.

A Kid Like Jake succeeds on behalf of Howard‘s confident direction, Pearle‘s sharp-witted and empathetic script, and two outstanding performances from Danes and Parsons.

Are you excited for Silas Howard’s directorial debut? What is your favorite LGBTQ film? Favorite Danes performance? Favorite Parsons performance?

A Kid Like Jake hits theaters in the U.S. on June 1, 2018, and digital streaming platforms on June 8, 2018. For more information on its release, click here.