"Quality Problems" is the kind of movie that makes the endless slog through your Video on Demand listings worthwhile. A raw, funny family comedy-drama made by an actual family — LA-based writer-director-actor duo Brooke and Doug Purdy, their kids, and friends — the movie played the festival circuit last year but never got a proper theatrical release. It has no reviews on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic. If it hadn't been for a handful of ecstatic Amazon user reviews, I wouldn't have been able to tell it apart from all the other straight-to-streaming New Release chum with titles like "Son of Bigfoot," "SheChotic," and "Nanny Nightmare."
So, yes, there are diamonds in the VOD muck, or at least very well-turned costume jewelry. "Quality Problems" spends a week in the fictional lives of Bailey (Brooke Purdy) and Drew (Doug Purdy) as their fractious working-class paradise threatens to come asunder: Bailey's breast cancer has returned, her father (Chris Mulkey) has early-onset Alzheimer's, husband Drew has to hold the house together while keeping the carpentry jobs coming — did I say this is a comedy? Yes, and much invested in finding and treasuring the day-day-day absurdities that glue a family into a unit. There's not much of a plot, and you'll need to be charitable toward some of the supporting performances, but the Purdys themselves are delightful to spend time with. I'll personally take this clan over the glossier soap of "This Is Us," and it beats the hell out of the suddenly reburied "Roseanne."
The Boston Globe
Bailey and Drew are a 40 something couple much like other couples: They have two kids, two jobs, and one boob with cancer. Toss in planning an 8 year old’s birthday party and the only thing you CAN do is laugh.
