20140129: Comedy Review--Drinking Buddies

Drinking Buddies

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 90 minutes, comedy, drama, romance.
2. IMDB: 6.2/10.0 from 22,308 audience ratings.  Aspect, 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 82% on the meter; 51% liked it from 16,818 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 324,035 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Joe Swanberg.
6. Starring: Olivia Wilde as Kate, Jake M. Johnson as Luke, Anna Kendrick as Jill, Ron Livingston as Chris, Ti West as Dave, Jason Sudeikis as Gene Dentler.
7. This film is an example of the indie subgenre mumblecore, which is deadly boring.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Kate does PR and promotional setups for a fairly new small brewery.  Luke works at the same brewery.  Jill is Luke's long time girlfriend.  Chris is Kate's boyfriend.


2. The two couples spend a weekend in the woods at a reasonably appointed cabin in Michigan.  Jill and Chris go on a hike, while Kate and Luke play cards.  Through all sorts of usual out in the woods activities, Luke and Kate seem to gravitate to each other.  They are a better fit than Kate and Chris.  Chris and Jill seem a bit more compatible than with their usual partners.


3. What could possibly go wrong?


4. Kate and Chris break up.  Jill puts the screws on Luke to get married some time or another.  Chris gifts Jill with a book; Luke is not all that happy about it.  When Jill goes away for a week, one wonders what else might break.


5. Kate drops in on Chris, who re-asserts the breakup.  Kate and Luke get drunk at his place.  Soon thereafter, Luke helps Kate move to a smaller place, which was not without its pain for Luke, especially when they finish the job.


6. Jill returns home days early from her trip.  Can they patch things up?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Uninteresting couples shake up their relationships in this feel bad comedy.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 It's a bit soft on focus, plus recurrent camera shake.


2. Sound: 8/10 Dips a bit low in conversation now and then.


3. Acting: 3/10 Uninspiring, uninteresting, slow, uninvolving.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 Slow, but not worth finishing.  "You are not allowed to make me feel bad," says Kate about ten times in one scene.  Tremendously bad scripting; really bad planning overall.

20151019, lundi.
I just watched Olivia Wilde on Off Camera with Sam Jones. A long part of the interview was about the making of Drinking Buddies. The director is more than a bit non-standard, and makes up films on the fly. There's more to it than that, and it does not work with all actors, but that is essentially it. Like the scene of selling a couple a beer was made up after the crew went to a brewery, drank, and watched people. Oi, perhaps that works for some films, but it's my thought that it did not work for this one. Despite this new insight, I still think that this film sucks rocks for the reasons given above.