When I first read about “Rebel with a Clause,” I thought its star sounded a little zany. Indeed, Ellen Jovin is brainy and zany. What else explains her setting up a grammar table to take strangers’ questions about prepositions and past participles?
Passion, pure and simple. Before the documentary film, Jovin had written “Rebel with a Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian,” which was published by HarperCollins and quickly became a national bestseller. The paperback version is out this month.
It all started on a fall day in 2018 when Jovin set up a folding table on a Manhattan sidewalk. In less than a New York minute, her “Grammar Table” had visitors.
Just as quickly, Jovin identified two key phenomena. First, there was an unmet need. And second, there is pent-up, hardcore demand for good grammar.
This is precisely why Jovin and her filmmaker husband Brandt Johnson took the show on the road. A Williams College alum, Johnson is Jovin’s jack-of-all-trades: producer, director, cinematographer, and editor.
Together our dynamic duo visited all 50 states diagramming sentences, discussing the eight parts of speech, and consulting dictionaries at every step of the way. When I tell you these interactions brought indescribable joy to interlocutors and Jovin alike, I am not being hyperbolic.
Everything about “Rebel with a Clause” is infectiously funny and delightfully wonderful. No matter where the Grammar Table went, its good-natured, down-to-earth, judgment-free approach captured and conveyed connection to all who checked in. Light-hearted debates about the Oxford comma? Check. Serious stumpers about punctuation? Here. Clarifications about pronunciation? Yes.
My favorite scene comes toward the end of the film when a young woman happens upon the Grammar Table. Born outside the U.S., she is self-conscious about her spoken English. Mind you, she is clearly fluent in English, and Jovin praises her for learning another language.
“Rebel with a Clause” is currently touring the festival circuit as Jovin and Johnson self-distribute an audience favorite. Thus, if Bantam Cinema & Arts Center, The Moviehouse in Millerton, and The Triplex are looking to add another winner to their already amazing line-ups, certain Jovin and Johnson are game for a community screening, a theatrical booking, or a grammatically fun run with a Q&A to remember. Or probably all of the above.
Ultimately, “Rebel with a Clause” reminds us of “Rebel Without a Cause,” which is brilliant on its own. Of course, the former passes the Bechdel test with flying colors, too. And just as Woman on the Verge is my alter ego, Rebel With a Clause is Jovin’s, because maybe we all need to name our true selves.
Without spoilers, I will add there is a very good reason Connecticut is the last state the filmmakers travel to. And because readers of The Berkshire Edge know how much I consider Connecticut the Center of the Universe, when the filmmakers finally get there, their Connecticut stop occurs in my hometown!
Get up, get dressed, and go see “Rebel with a Clause.” You will laugh harder than you have laughed at any movie so far this year, I guarantee it.
What I do not guarantee is 100 percent perfect grammar in today’s column, despite my best efforts. At least I know the difference between “lie” and “lay,” and I give credit for that to the Sisters of Mercy. Amen.
