Last year, three independent films stretched out the boundaries of exactly what a romantic comedy could be, and at least two of these movies (the first two reviewed) could more accurately be called anti-romantic comedies. If the winter blues has you feeling not so warm and cuddly, then these three (all available on Netflix) may be what you’re in the mood for.
I Give It a Year…The “gimmick” of this movie is that it really is the anti-romantic comedy made by the same people who made a lot of the most successful ones. It takes off from a reliably Hugh Grant-esque formula (mismatched boy and girl, both British, get married after a whirlwind romance) and then slowly deconstructs the rest by showing that boy and girl actually aren’t meant for each other and would both be better off with tempting Americans (Simon Baker is asked to fake an American accent as a work crush for Rose Byrne, and Anna Faris is the old girlfriend of Rafe Spall). This movie won’t really satisfy traditional lovers of romantic movies—-its gleefully cynical spirit is a little too depressing—-and it isn’t truly funny enough to win over haters of the genre either (any movie with Simon Baker in smoothie mood probably won’t appeal to grungy malcontents, and shouldn’t have to). Although I award some points for originality and a killer sequence with Anna Faris caught in the world’s most unnecessary threesome. Grade: C
Drinking Buddies…New Girl’s Jake Johanson (probably not spelling that right…definitely don’t care) is the best friend/work buddy/drinking buddy of Olivia Wilde’s character, and their relationship seems entirely platonic at first since they’re both in relationships with other people (Ron Livingston is Wilde’s more stable boyfriend, and Anna Kendrick is the nice girl Jake has been with for a very long time even if she’s beginning to wonder if he’ll ever marry her). Then it starts to look like maybe Livingston and Kendrick would be a better match…The movie has sly fun tweaking our expectations of who should be with each other, and just when we think we’ve got it figured out, unexpected events (never has moving a couch devolved into such a character-testing trap) keep shifting the landscape. This is a film without a lot of plot, but it’s actually saying something—-in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mumblecore way—-very truthful in Jake’s decision on whether to choose the “fun” Wilde or the caring Kendrick. [And no I didn’t mean to make that rhyme on purpose.] Still, the two lead characters are (at times) so grungy, it’s unintentionally gross to watch them. Grade: B
Touchy Feely…A very small movie about an ace massage therapist (Rosemarie Dewitt, who always feels like she’s just one role away from breaking through) who suddenly becomes repulsed by human touch at the exact time her stilted dentist brother experiences a career boom. There’s really not much of interest here except a couple scenes late into the movie where DeWitt begins opening up again, to the nature around her and within her. In those couple scenes (also with Ron Livingston), we begin to see what the best version of this movie would be. Grade: C+