The Dish and the Spoon

It’s quirk factor 10 as mistress of mumblecore Greta Gerwig returns to the low-budget indie fare that made her name. ‘The Dish and the Spoon’ isn’t quite mumblecore – it’s too professionally produced and narratively slick for that – but it nonetheless allows Gerwig to shake off her Hollywood trappings and get back to basics. The story is simple: devastated, cuckolded wife Rose (Gerwig) picks up a stray British teen (Olly Alexander) and the two spend time wandering around a boarded-up Delaware seaside town. The two lead performances are strong, and there are moments of keen emotional insight – the climactic country-dance scene is almost unbearably tense – but these are undercut by an overriding sense of indie-movie wackiness and overemphatic oddball characterisation.