The relationships between parents and children have long been fertile fodder for filmmaking. These are easily recognizable dynamics in the macro sense that can nevertheless run the gamut in terms of specifics. That combination of universality and flexibility allows a lot of room for interesting storytelling.

Perhaps its no surprise that writer-director Sofia Coppola would make a movie that explores that dynamic – specifically, that which exists between fathers and daughters. One imagines that her relationship with her own father – the legendary director Francis Ford Coppola – might be fraught, particularly when you consider that she made her way into the family business.

“On the Rocks” is her latest film, currently available on Apple TV+. It’s a story of one woman’s attempts to take a closer look at her life and her relationship, exploring her own feelings of stagnation while also trying to figure out where her husband stands. Her enthusiastic and somewhat misguided ally for these efforts is her wealthy, wayward father, a man who has his own very particular ideas about marriage and relationships.

This is a movie that takes great pleasure in deconstructing the upwardly-mobile marriage at its center, digging into the feelings that can spring up when parenthood and other factors are clamoring for your attention. It also does a great job in shifting and sharing different perspectives regarding what it means to have a successful relationship – or if such a thing is even really possible. And with a dynamite pairing of talents driving the action, the end result is a film packed with heart and humor.

BREWER – The spirit of live theatre is alive and well in Brewer, courtesy of the spirits of the dead.

Local companies Ten Bucks Theatre and True North Theatre have come together in collaboration for their outdoor production of the Edgar Lee Masters classic “Spoon River Anthology.” The show – which has limited audiences and socially distanced seating – is running at Brewer’s Indian Trail Park, with performances at 1 and 4 p.m. on October 24 and 25. Tickets, as well as information about safety protocols and guidelines, are available at www.tenbuckstheatre.org.

“Spoon River Anthology” was first published in 1915, a collection of free verse poems that purported to be epitaphs of the now-deceased residents of the titular town, based largely on Masters’ hometown of Lewistown, Illinois. Consisting of 212 characters and, in all, nearly 250 accounts of their lives in small-town rural America. In the years since, it has become a mainstay of theatrical groups of all levels – a rare work that allows for production flexibility while also remaining evocative and compelling. That flexibility makes it an ideal offering for the current time and place.