Nine Good Teeth

When Brooklyn-born, Sicilian-American matriarch "Nana" (Mary Mirabito Livornese Cavaliere) was young, a gypsy prophesied that she would only live to be 96 years old. With that ominous birthday looming near, director Alex Halpern set out to document the wondrously full life of his grandmother, a fiercely independent spitfire with an endless supply of hilariously homespun wisdom. Dreamily unfolding through Nana's stories, recollections, and interviews with her family - some loving, some rivalrous - Nine Good Teeth reveals many of the common truths hidden away in all our families, as well as the unexpected - late night visits from beat poet Jack Kerouac, illicit love affairs, and even the occasional murder. "You'll never live as long as I have," proclaims Nana, a truly outspoken and cinematic character who has witnessed the entire Twentieth Century with her own eyes. Halpern's directorial incursion into her life unwinds a beautiful and sentimental narrative, leaving his grandmother with a sense of closure and brave open mindedness for looking at death- the seemingly unreachable counterpoint to her long and healthy life.