First-time director Nick Davis shows impressive rookie chops in this freshman outing, skillfully handling one of the more diverse and engaging casts you will find assembled in any ensemble piece - from then almost-unknowns Jennifer Garner and Amanda Peet, to well-established actors such as Steven Wright, to the legendary Buck Henry who appears as the characters', and the film's, pater familias. It isn't often a director so successfully manages a group of both new and established talents as Davis does here.
Fans of My Dinner with André, Metropolitan, The Anniversary Party, and Rachel Getting Married will enjoy this pleasurable look at a disparate group of New Yorkers who come together at a party at their friend Andrew's (Matt McGrath) townhouse on New Year's Eve, 1999, to await the New Millennium and what, if any, changes it will bring to their somewhat chaotic lives; also viewers who enjoy the films of Henry Jaglom (especially New Year's Day and Someone to Love) and even the '70s films of Robert Altman such as Welcome to L.A. and A Wedding.
This movie also may have the funniest Bay City Rollers joke in film history.
The characters are universally engaging. Garner is charming as Annabell, the on-again, off-again girlfriend of main character Rufus Wild (Dan Futterman). Garner acts with a depth of feeling which we (understandably) never got to see on Alias. Once you've see her here, her strong work in The Invention of Lying (2009) comes as much less of a surprise. Amanda Peet is perfect as Nicole, the "perfect fantasy woman" who for a time distracts Rufus from his real, and thus much more difficult, relationship with Garner's Annabell.
If Rookie Director Davis makes one rookie mistake it is the most forgivable, in my opinion: he tries to do too much. While it is a movie about a party, and scene-setting is essential, Davis spreads himself too thin, lavishing screen time on fundamentally ancillary characters while neglecting the three main characters -- Futterman's Rufus, Garner's Annabell, and Matt McGrath's Andrew -- for too long periods at a time. Thus there is a sense of missed opportunity (but also future promise) that haunts the end of this film, but one that mirrors one's actual experience at many real parties, where one spends too much time talking with people one doesn't really want to, and not nearly enough time with those with whom one really does.
An excellent first outing, I look forward to seeing Davis's next feature film. He is clearly a born writer/director.
Fans of My Dinner with André, Metropolitan, The Anniversary Party, and Rachel Getting Married will enjoy this pleasurable look at a disparate group of New Yorkers who come together at a party at their friend Andrew's (Matt McGrath) townhouse on New Year's Eve, 1999, to await the New Millennium and what, if any, changes it will bring to their somewhat chaotic lives; also viewers who enjoy the films of Henry Jaglom (especially New Year's Day and Someone to Love) and even the '70s films of Robert Altman such as Welcome to L.A. and A Wedding.
This movie also may have the funniest Bay City Rollers joke in film history.
The characters are universally engaging. Garner is charming as Annabell, the on-again, off-again girlfriend of main character Rufus Wild (Dan Futterman). Garner acts with a depth of feeling which we (understandably) never got to see on Alias. Once you've see her here, her strong work in The Invention of Lying (2009) comes as much less of a surprise. Amanda Peet is perfect as Nicole, the "perfect fantasy woman" who for a time distracts Rufus from his real, and thus much more difficult, relationship with Garner's Annabell.
If Rookie Director Davis makes one rookie mistake it is the most forgivable, in my opinion: he tries to do too much. While it is a movie about a party, and scene-setting is essential, Davis spreads himself too thin, lavishing screen time on fundamentally ancillary characters while neglecting the three main characters -- Futterman's Rufus, Garner's Annabell, and Matt McGrath's Andrew -- for too long periods at a time. Thus there is a sense of missed opportunity (but also future promise) that haunts the end of this film, but one that mirrors one's actual experience at many real parties, where one spends too much time talking with people one doesn't really want to, and not nearly enough time with those with whom one really does.
An excellent first outing, I look forward to seeing Davis's next feature film. He is clearly a born writer/director.