Paint

Carl Nargle has hosted a painting show on Vermont public television for close to two decades. Each episode he spends an hour on air completing a landscape while talking to viewers, and the program has made him a local celebrity with a devoted following. When the station runs into financial trouble, Carl declines to extend his broadcast to two hours, so management brings in a younger artist, Ambrosia. She proves livelier on camera and more varied in her work, and she gradually draws away both the audience and the affection of the colleagues Carl has long taken for granted.

Paint is a comedy-drama directed by Brit McAdams, who also wrote the screenplay, and it was his feature debut in that role. Owen Wilson leads the cast as Carl, with Michaela Watkins, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ciara Renée, Lusia Strus and Stephen Root in supporting parts. The film runs 96 minutes and was produced by Silver Lining Entertainment, Blue Creek Pictures, IFC Films and Balcony 9 Productions.

It sits near the middle of the scale for those who have seen it: on IMDb it holds 5 out of 10 from about 6,300 votes, on TMDB 5.3 out of 10 from 158 votes. A critics' rating of 5 out of 10 from 103 reviews places professional assessment on roughly the same level as the audience response, with neither group leaning strongly positive or negative.