Social Animals (2018)

Jack and I really wanted to love this story of a slacker trying to get her life together but, alas, found it wildly uneven. With a female director/writer, great cast, and fantastic artsy location shots in Austin TX, its mood swings from funny and dirty to pathos are nonetheless hard to take.

Noël Wells (she played Aziz Ansari's love interest in the first season of Master of None, among other credits) does good work as the heroine Zoe, as does Josh Radnor (last blogged for Liberal Arts, in which his character also hooks up with a younger woman) as Paul. The scenes with Zoe and her best friend Claire, played by Carly Chaikin (I saw her in a few episodes of Suburgatory and laugh when I think about her character name, Excruciating, in the hilarious In a World...) are also very good.

Here's my analysis of what went wrong. The fact that Zoe's love interest Paul is married is supposed to be funny. But his wife is absolutely miserable. We were not amused. Aya Cash, who plays Paul's wife Jane, stars in the FX series You're the Worst (49 episodes there plus small parts in some other things we've seen) and Jack and I are big fans. In You're the Worst, Cash's character is bipolar, and when she gets depressed, the scripts move gracefully back into comedy. In this script, Jane is completely devoid of humor, and it's miserable to watch her.

This is Theresa Bennett's directorial and solo screenwriting debut after co-writing two other features. The movie looks terrific and has many good moments but I'm convinced she needs seasoning. Oh, now I'm reading that the crew was primarily women, which makes me feel even worse that I didn't love it. Does that make me sexist? Probably.

Comedian Fortune Feimster (six episodes of Life in Pieces and much more) apparently does a fair amount of improvising, including laughing a lot at her own jokes (she's in the bonus after the credits). Imdb has inexplicably given Samira Wiley (51 episodes of Orange Is the New Black, Cash's character's psychiatrist in five of You're the Worst, and the past and upcoming season of The Handmaid's Tale) top billing despite only a few scenes, I've submitted a correction, trying to get Wells, Radnor, and Cash to the top and Wiley moved down.

I can't find any music from the soundtrack online, but composer Greg Bernall (his feature debut) does have a website with some tunes. If you look for this movie online, be sure you don't pick the documentary or the band of the same name.

Rotten Tomatoes' audiences, averaging 86%, are a lot more enthusiastic than its critics at 43. This is available now for rent or sale (hmm) on iTunes and Amazon, though we saw it in a theatre. I'd like to hear from others who see it so we can discuss. Just please don't post any spoilers on this page. Instead, write me at babetteflix at gmail.