‘One Big Happy Family,’ a Peculiarly Filipino Movie
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(Front, L-R) Lisa Brenner, Dante Basco, (Back row l-r) Josh Fadem, Kat Cunning, Dylan Chance (Photo Courtesy of Dave Koch)
The singular name of the movie studio is a clue that One Big Happy Family has a Filipino upbringing. Electric Entertainment is the company of Dean Devlin, the half-Filipino producer, writer, and director who, within the last ten years of the last century, gave us the popcorn flicks Independence Day, Godzilla, Stargae, and The Patriot. On the very same set of The Patriot (2000), Devlin met his future wife, Lisa Brenner, who would later become the resident fan of all things Filipino. She is the lead actor and writer behind One Big Happy Family.
A Happy Break from an Unhappy Norm
Linda Lavin and Lisa Brenner (Photo Courtesy of Dave Koch)
“We have so much strife and stress in the world. I wanted my movie to free you to go into the theater, turn your brain off, laugh and just enjoy the fun ride of it,” Brenner expresses her hopes for One Big Happy Family.
The family comedy was inspired by Brenner’s real-life story after receiving results of a DNA test. The role of Rachel Torres is her avatar.
The movie turns on its heels the popular adage: “It is the family you choose, not the one you are born into, that matters.” Brenner plays a middle-aged mom who learns “that the family you were unknowingly born into” can be both eye opening and bananas.
Brenner recalls how a prediction she made at age four proved prophetic. “When I was little, I thought when you turned 40, your life was going to change.” She goes on, “When I turned 40, it was just another day on the calendar until I got my DNA results back and found out that my life did completely change just as I predicted it would when I was little.”
Basco and Brenner, an Extraordinary Couple
The familiar Fil-Am actor Dante Basco plays Torres’ husband, Marcus. “This film is all about a nucleus family and their extended family,” relates Basco. “Family is what Filipinos are all about.
“We love to see ourselves popping up in movies, and more and more of us have been in so many projects lately,” he observes.
“Being that Lisa (Brenner), the star and writer of the movie, is married to Dean Devlin, who happens to be half-Filipino, I really got to step into his shoes,” Basco hints of a spiritual bond with Marcus. “This film makes you question what actually makes us family.”
Brenner is a Long Island Jew with Ivy League (Barnard/Columbia) sensibilities who married into Devlin’s Filipino/Jewish family that is rooted in the entertainment industries of Hollywood and the Philippines through his Filipina screen star mother, the late Pilar Seurat. What started as a bride’s curiosity about the groom’s family developed into a voluntary immersion into Filipino culture and the Philippine Islands.
Of the several times she and Devlin have visited the Philippines, Brenner says, “I have taken on the Filipino culture when we go to the Philippines. I feel like I’m the Filipino one of the two of us. I feel very loved there. Filipinos are just a wonderful people and culture.
“We’ve been to Cebu and Manila. I feel very much at home in those places. And my children have learned to cook pancit,” she says of her two young adult daughters, both of whom have cameos in One Big Happy Family.
Brenner welcomes Fil-Ams to her latest movie and invites all to her next feature which takes place in the Philippines. While she isn’t Filipina by blood like her daughters, she is Filipina by intimate association, and in her case, that’s Filipina enough. Combined with her New York Jewish worldview, she brings her sophisticated humor to a Filipino story. She is uniquely positioned to comprehend the country’s complex history to tell stories that favor the indigenous frame of reference.
As an outsider and insider (or all-sider), Brenner is a dancer who can step in and out of the bamboo sticks and thresh out the laughs and pearls. The cineplex is ready for an ethnic Nora Ephron but don’t expect Brenner’s next movie to be Sleepless in Manila.
Lumi Pollack (Photo Courtesy of Dave Koch)
Farewell to a Hollywood and Broadway Icon
One of plenty reasons to see One Big Happy Family is Linda Lavin, who passed away in 2024. The Tony and double Golden Globe award winning actor played Lenore, the mother of the Rachel Torres character.
As a working actor since age seven, Brenner was honored to share the screen with Lavin. “I connected with her from day one. I just adore her.” She adds, “And yeah, I want to be her one day.”
What’s Up with Him?
The Debut (2000) was the movie that laid the groundwork for Dante and brothers Dion, Darion, and Derek to achieve celluloid immortality in their 2021 collaboration, The Fabulous Filipino Brothers.
Dante discussed a sentimental bond with the first Basco bros. feature. “It was the first time I got to play a Filipino in my career on film or TV or anything. It’s always magical to do something first. I recently watched The Debut at a revival in LA; it still holds up. There’s a lot of heart in that movie, and it’s a good snapshot of the people we were at the time.” By “we” he implies the progress Fil-Ams had made in the U.S. at the start of the Millennium.
Contrary to a ubiquitous financial disclaimer, Dante proves that past performance is a guarantee of future returns. “We’ve been in the industry for 40 years now! It’s crazy to think it’s been that long and the next generation of Bascos are coming up, too! And some of my most fulfilling work has come in films where I’ve gotten to represent my family and community.”
The family comedy was inspired by Brenner’s real-life story after receiving results of a DNA test.
What lies ahead for the brothers Basco? “I’m always writing and planning to shoot more projects with my brothers,” says Dante. “Who knows? We may get a sequel to our films together for the future. But right now, a film with me and Darion playing brothers trying to take over Filipinotown in LA is about to hit the festival circuit.” He’s alluding to East of Western.
In 2003, I interviewed Basco for Filipinas magazine following the opening of Biker Boyz, a movie starring Lawrence Fishburne and lots of fast motorcycles. The movie put Basco on the saddle of a motorbike, and from there, he never looked back until now, perhaps. Now that he has a baby in the crib, I asked him his view on donning a fiberglass helmet then mounting a 1000cc motor between two rubber tires.
“I still love to ride even though I’m a dad now.” He then goes all-in to add, “Maybe I’ll get a chance to ride with my kid someday.”
Anthony Maddela is a writer based in Los Angeles. He and wife Susan have a son named Gregory in college who promotes Based bodyworks for men. They also have a daughter named Charlotte who recently graduated from Cal Poly Humboldt University and is a Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society Board member. She can be found in the field with her trusty Zeiss binoculars.
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