Cassavetes feel to it?

Not sure if you'll see this, jmorrissey, since it's been over seven years since your post, but I think the movie had a very Cassavetes feel, not just because of the presence of Rowlands (who I love in anything) & Gazzara. I haven't seen all of C's movies yet because the ones I have so far are a little too intense sometimes, not a bad thing at all, but as others have stated this film isn't feel-good by any means, it's an superbly made look at a life- and because it's so well done the audience is able to empathize so much with Uma's character, her life, and with the lives of the others, too, to a lesser extent. I was especially impressed by Juliette Lewis' performance, who before seeing this had always kind of annoyed me--and having watched Cape Fear the other night after years of seeing it years ago, I can totally understand why--but she's perfect here too. All-around great movie re: cinematography, writing, casting, acting.