Synopsis
You Can Count on Me (2000) is an American drama you can watch online on iFILM — Kenneth Lonergan's feature debut, which he also wrote. Sammy (Laura Linney) is a single mother in a small upstate New York town: steady job at the bank, a teenage son, a life held together by routine. Her younger brother Terry (Mark Ruffalo) shows up unannounced, broke, and already asking for something.
They love each other. That's never in doubt. What the film digs into is the specific friction of two people shaped by the same childhood loss — their parents died in a car accident when they were young — who grew into completely different people. Terry is a drifter who can't seem to stay anywhere. Sammy can't seem to leave. Her son gravitates toward his uncle anyway, drawn to someone who doesn't follow her rules.
Lonergan picked up Oscar nominations for his screenplay and for Linney's lead performance, and both are earned. Linney makes Sammy feel genuinely three-dimensional in a way that most family dramas don't manage. Stream You Can Count on Me (2000) on iFILM.
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