#REVIEW: “BREAKING NEWS IN YUBA COUNTY”

By Mr. Will Wong

It’s Sue Buttons’ (Allison Janney) birthday and she learns of her husband Karl‘s (Matthew Modine) infidelity. He dies suddenly and instead of reporting this to the police, she decides to report him missing. This garners her attention locally, something she’s been missing her whole life, whether it be vying for it with her sibling Nancy (Mila Kunis) or in her loveless marriage. Detective Cam Harris (Regina Hall) is assigned to the case and Sue struggles to keep her story straight as the Detective circles closer and closer to the truth. Add to the mix, some clumsy criminals in Mina (Awkwafina) and Ray (Clifton Collins Jr.) who try to cash-in on an opportunity for ransom, plus a lesbian furniture salesperson in Rita (Wanda Sykes) who tries to help raise money for the ransom. What we get is a twisted Black Comedy from that same man who brought us The Help, Tate Taylor.

While the story takes us allover the place, BREAKING NEWS IN YUBA COUNTY relies on a strong performance from its lead and Janney does a credible job making us really feel for Sue, when the world can’t give her the time of day.  The world is cruel and the Film is crude, but Taylor explores how a woman he didn’t know what she wanted in life until the stakes got high and fame got dangled before her. She held on desperately to try to make it happen. And believe me, it comes at all costs.  People get captured, get maimed and die, but it’s all so ridiculous that it’s oddly humorous.

Taylor gets a phenomenal Cast to work with here and Juliette Lewis is a hoot as television personality Gloria Michaels goes from disinterested to deeply-invested in Sue as her star beings to rise and that translates to ratings.  Awkwafina as always, also adds to the element of fun and our main issue with the Film is that it could’ve commit a bit more to this tonally as it hovers between being violent, sympathetic and humorous without ever being enough of either.

VVS Films release BREAKING NEWS IN YUBA COUNTY available now on Digital and On-Demand.