THE OVERNIGHT (2015) (B+) - The Duplass brothers recruit the reliable Jason Schwartzman to anchor this dark comedy about a couple new to Los Angeles who get lured into the relationship intrigue of a quirky husband and wife. Writer-director Patrick Brice delivers this long night of debauchery in under 80 minutes, making his sharp point and not overstaying his welcome.
Alex and Emily (Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling) struggle with their sex life as they move to L.A. from Seattle to raise their preschool son. On a visit to the park, their son meets a playmate, and the father is Kurt (Schwartzman), who invites the pair to pizza dinner as the house he shares with his wife, Charlotte (Judith Godreche) and their boy. The wine flows with the pizza, but they soon turn to the harder stuff, along with weed, and before long inhibitions start to slip.
Kurt is a free spirit, and Charlotte is French, while Emily is uptight and inexperienced, and Alex is insecure about his manhood. Brice, in classic Duplass style, takes a specific circumstance that requires unique characters to react in realistic ways and sets loose a group of substantive actors on the material. Each actor delivers here, led by Schwartzman's over-confident Kurt (he is especially proud of his artwork, composed entirely of colorful renditions of various anuses). Scott can be hit-and-miss, but he keeps it under control here as a man genuinely excited to have his worldview expanded. Schilling (who was the drag on "Orange Is the New Black") is laid back but affecting, while Godreche is a wild card. It is an ensemble that clicks in a simple but effective exercise in storytelling.
HAPPIEST SEASON (C) - Generic in every way, starting with its title, this Christmas bauble about a closeted lesbian bringing her "friend" home to meet the family wastes a strong cast on a string of cliched scenes. It's a disappointing sophomore effort from Clea DuVall, who had broken out of her role in the "Veep" cast to debut as a writer-director with "The Intervention" in 2016.
As with her first film, DuVall is blessed with a talented cast, which is the only saving grace here. Kristen Stewart (doing her classic mope, only as a bleach blonde here) is Abby, who plans to ask her girlfriend, Harper (Mackenzie Davis from "Tully" and "Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town"), to marry her when they go home to Harper's family for Christmas. Except Harper fails to divulge fully that she lied about coming out to her family, and so Abby reluctantly agrees to pose as Harper's orphaned roommate.
Let the high-jinks ensue! The problem is, this made-for-Hulu concoction simply cannot rise above some of the lamest rom-com tropes, with cardboard stereotypes dotting the supporting cast. Allison Brie and Mary Holland overdo it as the sisters of Harper competing for the love of their ambitious father (Victor Garber) and the acceptance of their over-wound mother (Mary Steenburgen). Abby even has a wise-cracking gay best friend (Dan Levy), while Harper has a distrustful rival back home (Aubrey Plaza). That's quite a power-hitting cast, and they can often be fun to watch, but DuVall simply drops the ball and phones in a trite script and wince-inducing scenes stretched out over 100 bloated minutes. (Be prepared: This is another one of those movies where every character learns a life-changing lesson literally overnight.) In sum, this is the very definition of couch-coping during the holidays.
BONUS TRACK
Our title track, from Bowie, crisp as ever:
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