Pieces of April

Holmes is April, the black sheep of her family, who's about to introduce the folks to her black boyfriend (Luke) in their pokey New York apartment. It's Thanksgiving, and her incompetent efforts to make a presentable meal become more urgent when she discovers the cooker is broken. And so she rings each of her neighbours' doorbells, begging for space in their ovens and thus introducing a cross-cultural selection of eccentrics. It's not unlike a sitcom episode in structure, but far wittier and grittier than cosy TV fare. Laughter and poignancy go hand in hand in this DV debut whose comedy that may be standard, but never ceases to deliver sharp, dark laughs.