Mubi Monday: Results (2015)

It is easy to view gym life as quite a cult. Those who work there tend to be positive and full of motivational mantras, and those who end up responding well to the lifestyle end up acting like someone who has been recently converted to some kind of new religion. I don’t say this with malice. I speak from experience, and that experience is ongoing as I try to remain committed to my own gym and fitness schedule. Results is a movie that has fun with this idea, especially in the way it presents two fitness instructors with two very different ways of viewing life.

Kevin Corrigan plays Danny, a man who wants to get into shape. He wanders into a gym and chats to Trevor (Guy Pearce), who ends up pairing him up with a trainer named Kat (Cobie Smulders). It turns out that Danny is quite rich. It also turns out that he finds Kat attractive. Furthermore, Trevor also has a thing for Kat. What follows is a constant clash of differing attitudes as every one of these three main protagonists is somehow helped by the others to correct their path through life.

Both Pearce and Smulders are great fun here, butting heads in a way that you know is just distracting them from a chance to see their relationship potential. Pearce has to be almost constantly optimistic and positive throughout, while Smulders enjoys being a bit more confrontational and carefree. Corrigan is an actor I have loved seeing in supporting roles for years, and his excellent turn here makes me wish he had many more people willing to give him this amount of screentime. Giovanni Ribisi is good fun in a small role, a partying lawyer, and Anthony Michael Hall feels as if he is channeling Dolph Lundgren whenever he appears onscreen as a kettlebell guru named Grigory.

Written and directed by Andrew Bujalski, who has helmed at least three gems in the last decade or so, Results is a well-constructed comedy drama that stays enjoyable throughout, even in the scenes that hint at darker or more cringe-inducing options. This is as much to do with the performances as it is to do with the script, but Bujalski clearly has a talent for dialogue and characterization that attracts some great actors to his projects. It is also worth noting that this isn’t a film making fun of those who enjoy fitness or gym life. It is saying that there is no one easy “fix” for any of us, whether in the gym or just in life, but nobody is mocked here for trying to better themselves, even while they struggle. As anyone who has been trying to get fit for a decent amount of time can tell you, you can learn just as much from failures as you can learn from success.

There might be some people who would have preferred this to be a sharper film, a meaner one, but I think Bujalski has judged it perfectly. It’s a typical look at some characters trying to sort out their problems and create a decent future for themselves. They just all happen to be connected by their ongoing attempts to develop healthy bodies and healthy minds.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Living In Oblivion (1995)

This is yet another film I had heard about decades ago, when it was first released, but sadly didn’t get around to. Everyone I took notice of gave this plenty of praise, proclaiming it a smart and funny film that worked particularly well on people with even passing knowledge of the chaos and egos that can often occur while films are being made. And, once again, everyone I took notice of proved to be absolutely correct.

Living In Oblivion shows us the trials and tribulation of a director (Steve Buscemi) trying to get his film made. He has a superb leading lady (Catherine Keener) to help, but everyone else seems to bring extra problems to the filming process, whether it’s an egotistical male lead (James Le Gros) or a cameraman who keeps trying to change the shot (Dermot Mulroney). There’s a focus puller (Kevin Corrigan) who doesn’t always stay focused, another temperamental actor who comes on the scene later (Peter Dinklage), and tension whenever the sound mixer (Michael Griffiths) is trying to ensure that anything caught on camera has good enough audio to accompany it.

Written and directed by Tom DiCillo, a director with a small filmography that you could find in a dictionary alongside the definition of “quirky”, Living In Oblivion is entertaining and amusing from the earliest scenes, and then just gets better and better as it all builds towards a satisfying, and hilarious, finale. Roughly split into three distinct acts, and moving between moments of colour and moments shown in black and white, this is a fairly low-budget and small film that never feels confined by the limited resources. Because the focus is always on a director just trying to get one main scene finalized it feels natural to be observing that one main scenes, with the repetition and frustrations being the main point of the film. The script is brilliant, with almost every line and moment featuring either a gag or a knowing commentary about life on a low-budget film set, from the dubious selection of goods available to eat and drink to the tension that can arise when a relationship spurs between two colleagues.

Buscemi is great in his role, a typical director with a vision often exceeding the resources he has available to him. It’s his film, because the film within the film is HIS film, and he gives one of his absolute best performances, which is high praise indeed when you think of everything he’s done. Keener is easily equal to him, and understandably steals every scene that focuses on her (which makes up a lot of the screentime), as viewers are shown how much the camera and crew are enthralled by her performance. She has the tougher role than Buscemi, and her effortless greatness shows why she has long been someone that movie fans love to see appear in any role she takes. Mulroney and Corrigan are both fun, Le Gros is an entertaining douchebag, and Dinklage gets to have the second-best outburst in the film (nothing tops Buscemi’s outburst about 20-30 minutes into things). Everyone else deserves praise, from Griffiths to Danielle Von Zerneck (playing the main assistant to Buscemi’s character), and there’s not one weak spot in the entire cast, with even the smallest roles feeling absolutely spot on.

If you enjoy comedies then you should enjoy this, especially if you’re also a fan of any of the main players. If you have even a passing familiarity with how much blood, sweat, and tears it can take to make any movie, however, then this could well become a firm favourite. I know it is now one of mine.

9/10

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Prime Time: Meet Cute (2022)

If you look over the short filmography of writer Noga Pnueli then you will see that she seems to have a fascination with time travel/time loops, and how people may try to use it to change themselves, or change the people they care about. I am only going by the plot summaries here, having not seen any of her other work, but I am now keen to see how she has been working and reworking this idea for the past few years, because Meet Cute is good enough to make me into an instant fan of her.

The premise seems quite simple, and familiar. Kaley Cuoco is Sheila, a young woman who approached Gary (Pete Davidson) in a bar. She offers to buy him a drink, and they stick together for an enjoyable date night. Things aren't what they seem though. Sheila has gone through this date multiple times, thanks to a time machine she makes use of in the back of a nail salon, and she wants to keep enjoying the perfect night. While relishing the opportunity to fix her own life, because this bit of time travel came along just after a very low point, Sheila also realises that she can "fix" Gary. She can mould him into someone absolutely perfect. But maybe he's already perfect for her. And maybe she shouldn't meddle around in the past without considering "the butterfly effect".

Director Alex Lehmann also has a fairly small filmography, for anyone wanting to explore it, but this is the first film from him that I have enjoyed. Other people liked Blue Jay, but I was underwhelmed by it. Funnily enough, it's easy to see a connection between that film and this though, considering the moments in which one character is going through the motions and celebrating a complete relationship that the other character is often unaware of. Lehmann does a good job here, keeping everything lively and interesting enough while allowing the focus to remain on the script and his leads.

As for those leads, both Davidson and Cuoco are excellent. I have, for some reason, always thought I disliked Davidson, but time and time again he delivers moments onscreen (whether in his many acting roles or in his live comedy work) that really work for me. His self-deprecating manner, his ability to tap into his own darkness and discomfort, even his way of leaning fully into complete asshole mode, he's always fascinating and entertaining to watch. And he sometimes gets to be awkward and sweet, as he is here. Cuoco is someone I always liked in her TV work (yes, hate the show all you want, I was easily amused by The Big Bang Theory whenever I watched it), but she deserves to be in more lead movie roles, especially after proving her range in recent projects like this and The Flight Attendant. Meet Cute gets dark at times, very dark, and it's the winning charisma of Davidson and Cuoco that stop it from ever being too dark. Deborah S. Craig is fun in her small role, June (guardian of the time machine), and it was good to see Kevin Corrigan onscreen, even if he was in the fairly thankless role of "Phil the bartender".

Although I do love a good time loop movie, they are often quite similar to one another when it comes to the execution of the material. You see the key moments that will signify repeating time, you see many changes being made to attempt to change the end result, etc. Meet Cute has those moments in place, but they're interspersed throughout the film in a way that helps the whole thing to feel a bit different from many other films in this sub-genre. And almost none of it seems to matter by the time we get to the end, which moves away from the fantastical element to instead underline the main message about not dwelling on the past.

Funny, sweet, painful, and smart. Highly recommended.

8/10

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