DVD/Stream of the Week: DRINKING BUDDIES – an unusually genuine romantic comedy

Drinking Buddies

In Drinking Buddies, Olivia Wilde plays the only female employee of an urban craft brewery. She and her co-worker best buddy (Jake Johnson) eat their lunches together every day, kid around on the job and join the crew for beers after work. They really connect and share trust with each other, and the two have achieved an enviable level of interpersonal comfort. If this were the typical idiot Hollywood romantic comedy, we could stop watching now, because we would know that they would dump their current significant others (Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston) in the third act because THEY ARE MEANT FOR EACH OTHER.

But, instead, writer-director Joe Swanberg surprises us with an unusually genuine romantic comedy. The characters act and react – not in the way we’ve come to expect rom com characters to act – but as unpredictably as would real people. Real people can be complex. Real people can make choices out of short-term self-gratification – or they can make sacrifices for the greater good – you don’t always know what’s coming. Swanberg trusts that the audience isn’t demanding a tired formula – and it pays off for him and for us.

Swanberg has also made the first Mumblecore movie that I’ve liked. I was on the verge of writing off the entire cinematic genre because I don’t like to watch self-involved twits obsess over their own avoidable, First World problems. Although Swanberg’s male characters have the Mumblecore bedhead, he makes this movie about a situation that could happen to any of us – discovering a potential soul mate outside our existing relationship. And the characters don’t wring their hands and kvetch – they struggle through the untidy challenge and move on.

The cast is solid, and the glammed-down Olivia Wilde is especially very good here.

Drinking Buddies: an unusually genuine romantic comedy

Drinking Buddies

In Drinking Buddies, Olivia Wilde plays the only female employee of an urban craft brewery.  She and her co-worker best buddy (Jake Johnson) eat their lunches together every day, kid around on the job and join the crew for beers after work.  They really connect and share trust with each other, and the two have achieved an enviable level of interpersonal comfort.  If this were the typical idiot Hollywood romantic comedy, we could stop watching now, because we would know that they would dump their current significant others (Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston) in the third act because THEY ARE MEANT FOR EACH OTHER.

But, instead, writer-director Joe Swanberg surprises us with an unusually genuine romantic comedy.  The characters act and react – not in the way we’ve come to expect rom com characters to act – but as unpredictably as would real people.  Real people can be complex.  Real people can make choices out of short-term self-gratification – or they can make sacrifices for the greater good – you don’t always know what’s coming.  Swanberg trusts that the audience isn’t demanding a tired formula – and it pays off for him and for us.

Swanberg has also made the first Mumblecore movie that I’ve liked.    I was on the verge of writing off the entire cinematic genre because I don’t like to watch self-involved twits obsess over their own avoidable, First World problems.  Although Swanberg’s male characters have the Mumblecore bedhead, he makes this movie about a situation that could happen to any of us – discovering a potential soul mate outside our existing relationship.  And the characters don’t wring their hands and kvetch – they struggle through the untidy challenge and move on.

The cast is solid, and the glammed-down Olivia Wilde is especially very good here.

Drinking Buddies is available on DVD from Netlix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, GooglePlay and XBOX Live.

DVD of the Week: End of Watch

End of Watch is a top notch thriller of a cop movie, and it made my list of Best Movies of 2012.   Two cops, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, patrol a hell hole beat in South Central LA.  They are well-intentioned cops, but they are testosterone-fueled young guys. They are always looking for action, and this neighborhood has plenty of action.  They ultimately bite off more than they should try to chew.

Writer-director David Ayer (Training Day) has made a movie that rises above the genre because of the well-written main characters and their relationship.  We watch them chiefly from a camera on the dashboard of their squad car.  We learn that they are both decent guys and both adrenaline junkies, but one is more aspirational and one is more settled.  They are both funny, and the multiracial theater audience at my screening was howling at the ethnic ball-breaking.

There are also some impressive chases, often filmed with the dashboard camera facing forward.  It’s thrilling stuff.  There’s a lot of shaky cam (which I usually hate), but here it works well to enhance the chaos of the setting as well as the action.

The rest of the cast is excellent, most notably Natalie Martinez and Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) as the love interests, David Harbour, America Ferrera and Frank Grillo as fellow cops, and Diamonique as a fierce gangbanger.

And here’s a shout out to Michael Peña.  In End of Watch, Peña nails both the humor and the action; he’s on-screen almost the whole movie and has an engaging presence.  He has played so many Latino cops, and he really deserves a chance to show what he can do with a different type of role.

End of Watch: thrilling cop drama rises above the genre

End of Watch is a top notch thriller of a cop movie.  Two cops, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, patrol a hell hole beat in South Central LA.  They are well-intentioned cops, but they are testosterone-fueled young guys. They are always looking for action, and this neighborhood has plenty of action.  They ultimately bite off more than they should try to chew.

Writer-director David Ayer (Training Day) has made a movie that rises above the genre because of the well-written main characters and their relationship.  We watch them chiefly from a camera on the dashboard of their squad car.  We learn that they are both decent guys and both adrenaline junkies, but one is more aspirational and one is more settled.  They are both funny, and the multiracial theater audience at my screening was howling at the ethnic ball-breaking.

There are also some impressive chases, often filmed with the dashboard camera facing forward.  It’s thrilling stuff.  There’s a lot of shaky cam (which I usually hate), but here it works well to enhance the chaos of the setting as well as the action.

The rest of the cast is excellent, most notably Natalie Martinez and Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) as the love interests, David Harbour, America Ferrera and Frank Grillo as fellow cops, and Diamonique as a fierce gangbanger.

And here’s a shout out to Michael Peña.  In End of Watch, Peña nails both the humor and the action; he’s on-screen almost the whole movie and has an engaging presence.  He has played so many Latino cops, and he really deserves a chance to show what he can do with a different type of role.

DVD of the Week: 50/50

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who has reliably excellent taste in his choice of movie scripts) stars in this cancer comedy.  Yes, cancer comedy.  Seth Rogen plays his buddy.  And it’s funny.  Pretty damn funny.

Writer Will Reiser takes the story from his own bout with the Big C.   Reiser’s real life friend Seth Rogen helped him through the ordeal.

As usual, Gordon-Levitt is excellent.  And, if you’re out chasing skirts while bald and weak from chemotherapy, who could be a better wing man than Seth Rogen?

Anna Kendrick (so good in Up in the Air) plays the cringingly green psychologist assigned to help the patient face his 50/50 chance of survival.   Bryce Dallas Howard (excellent as the achingly fragile survivor in Hereafter) plays the girlfriend with the best intentions but neither aptitude for care giving or unlimited loyalty.  Angelica Huston plays not just another smothering mom They’re all very good – good enough to play against Gordon-Levitt and Rogen.  So are Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) as fellow cancer patients.

50/50: what’s funnier than cancer?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who has reliably excellent taste in his choice of movie scripts) stars in this cancer comedy.  Yes, cancer comedy.  Seth Rogen plays his buddy.  And it’s funny.  Pretty damn funny.

Writer Will Reiser takes the story from his own bout with the Big C.   Reiser’s real life friend Seth Rogen helped him through the ordeal.

As usual, Gordon-Levitt is excellent.  And, if you’re out chasing skirts while bald and weak from chemotherapy, who could be a better wing man than Seth Rogen?

Anna Kendrick (so good in Up in the Air) plays the cringingly green psychologist assigned to help the patient face his 50/50 chance of survival.   Bryce Dallas Howard (excellent as the achingly fragile survivor in Hereafter) plays the girlfriend with the best intentions but neither aptitude for care giving or unlimited loyalty.  Angelica Huston plays not just another smothering mom They’re all very good – good enough to play against Gordon-Levitt and Rogen.  So are Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) as fellow cancer patients.