Sons of a Gun

A freshly minted classic, Sons of a Gun is a portrait of a new archetypal American family — Larry, a laissez-faire LAPD hostage negotiator, and the three mentally ill adults under his care in a Bay Area motel room. Inside this claustrophobic fish bowl, we come to see lovability and comic timing along with the tics and the outbursts. Delightful and disturbing, the film crackles like a dark sitcom by way of R. Crumb and the Beale sisters. With expressive camerawork and brisk editing, Medow and O’Toole have created indelible characters and a narrative that fulfills a social mission much more effectively than a prescriptive piece on behalf of the mentally ill. It’s a jaw-dropping ride that confounds our expectations at every turn — including a second-act twist that shatters any notion their lives were going to be romanticized.