A mother and daughter navigate the end in Tammy’s Always Dying, the latest from director Amy Jo Johnson.
Obviously Tammy can only die once, but she’s been threatening to die for years now. Every month when the money runs out she goes to a bridge to jump, and every month her daughter comes and talks her down. The welfare check comes in a few days and Tammy returns to her boozy life, and her daughter waits for the next fire to put out. It’s an uneasy but stable relationship, one that’s thrown into chaos when Tammy is diagnosed with terminal cancer and the two have to face the real end.
This may sound like a downer, but the trailer hints at a wry sense of humor that will hopefully make it palatable. This blend of the serious and the comic should be familiar to Johnson, whose debut feature, The Space Between, also mixed the two. That film didn’t get much of a release, so for most of us, this is our first chance to see what Johnson (who, because of my demo, I immediately clocked as the original Pink Power Ranger) can do behind the camera.
Getting Felicity Huffman as the titular dying woman probably helped get solid distribution, although with theaters shut down this is going straight to VOD. Co-staring with Huffman is Anastasia Phillips.
Tammy’s Always Dying is directed by Amy Jo Johnson and stars Felicity Huffman and Anastasia Phillips. It will be released in the US on VOD on May 1st, 2020. Further release dates are not currently known.
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