New Orleans Film Festival 2009

Think about it. Your good friends have invited you, your significant other and another couple, who are also your close friends, to their rural cabin for an evening of partner swapping. It’s all been discussed and amicably agreed upon. Everyone’s cool with it. You are all adults, in solid relationships. How do you really expect the evening will go? Cummings Farm gives you window into just such a weekend, but as you might imagine, there’s more than one way to strip down in front of those who know you best. This dark comedy provides writing so sharp and acting so smartly realistic that as one action follows the next, no matter how uncomfortable, unexpected or ridiculous, each ring equally true. Set on an abandoned strawberry farm in south Louisiana, it’s difficult not to appreciate, and often to relate to, these hipsters who sense themselves taking their last steps away from sexual freedom and irresponsibility into committed and monogamous relationships, leaving self-serving ways behind—some more reluctantly than others. This weekend may be their only last chance to taste forbidden fruit with their partner’s blessing, never mind that there’s usually a devilish hand attached. Starring Adam Busch, Aimee-Lynn Chadwick, Jordan Kessler, Laura Silverman, Ted Beck, Yasmine Kittles.