Fast-Paised review: '51 Birch Street'

Exceptional doc may tell you more about this family than you know about your own

By Matt Pais

Documentary filmmaker Doug Block began reading decades of his mom's diary entries after she died. He also talked to his father in an attempt to understand his parents' troubled marriage and his relationship with his mom and dad.

Big question: Can this low-budget doc convince us that this family, more than any other, deserves to have its stories told?

Catch it: This is a time capsule on the old-fashioned institution of marriage--a film that looks at a couple married at a time when men and women hardly communicated, and the consequential effect on their children. Much more than just one family's story, it's a reflective study of why people get married and why, for better or worse, they stay that way.

Skip it: If your perception of your parents will be altered by hearing stories about swinging and infidelity. The '60s sure sound like fun.

Bottom line: Block's transitions often fall back on undemanding descriptions like "then Dad threw me a curveball," but this is an intensely painful, personal and cathartic movie of a man coming to accept his parents as people with flaws, problems and regrets.

Bonus: Block's mom confesses that the "1812 Overture" sounds much better when you're high. Don't tell Tchaikovsky!

Matt Pais is the metromix movies producer.

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'51 Birch Street'

Directed, written and photographed by Doug Block; co-written and edited by Amy Seplin; music by Machine Head and H. Scott Salinas; produced by Block and Lori Cheatle. A Truly Indie release; opens Friday at Landmark Renaissance Place Cinema, Highland Park. Running time: 1:28. No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for language and subject matter).