Swingers

-Story-

Swingers tells the somewhat depressing story of Mike, a down on his luck comedian living in LA and desperately trying to get his life together after his break up with his girlfriend six months previously. Now I know that might sound a bit heady, but believe me, this film is as far from that as possible. Swingers is a drama, but largely comedic. It’s a story about relationships, but it’s very male oriented. Mike has a series of interesting cultural and bonding experiences with his colourful cast of friends. The setting is Los Angeles, and that plays heavily into the structure of the plot. I don’t think people could ever be or act like these guys do in any other place. Much of the characters’ comedy comes from their physical situation; these guys really feel like LA. Mike’s friends especially Trent, are all complete players, but do they actually know anything about relationships? Most likely not. But hey, the story doesn’t suffer at all for it. It’s only funnier; to watch these guy who think they are so money acting like idiots. This is definitely a guys film, but the comedy is very poignant and the characters are fun. If this movie was released now don’t think it would be anywhere near as big as it was but at the time (1996) it seemed to strike a chord with the public, and it really is a very enjoyable film to watch even now.

This film looks very nice. It’s all fairly straightforward, but LA is a cool place to shoot. Films so often seem to neglect the life of the city their filmed in, they make themselves generic on purpose. Well, I for one, find it refreshing to see a film like Swingers that plays so heavily on the setting. These guys are very LA, they lead a very LA lifestyle. It’s cool, I know it’s not what everyone wants to see, maybe people feel they can’t relate or something; but for me it worked.

The film has a few somewhat, oh how to put it, I guess “film school qualities” to it. There’s nothing really wrong with it, and obviously Director Liman, knew what he was doing, as is evident in the basement scene where the guys are all discussing the derivativeness of films. But it’s kind of funny to see these little cinema graphic homage’s to other films. Regardless, if you get these or not, and there are a number of them, the film looks good. Real to the point of documentary feel at times, but good. I should also make mention of the music. Great stuff, this film really helped bring Swing back into fashion as a mini retro craze. And it looks great on film. Especially the wonderful performance in the film by Big Bad Vodoo Daddy. Very cool.

This film relies on its actors a lot; and uses them to good purpose. This was the film that launched the careers of Vince Vaughn, and Jon Favreau. They both are really excellent here. I cringed watching Favreau’s character Mike screw up everything that came to him. It was excellent. You wanted to root for him, as the protagonist and all; but he’s mostly speaking just so pathetic. Very enjoyable performance. But the real breakout act here was Vaughn. As Mike’s friend Trent, he is amazing. So full of life, he is like the ultimate Player. In his characters words; he’s just money. Way over the top at times, and very fun to watch. A great job by Vaughn.

The film is directed by Doug Liman. He seems pretty good, he’s only made four movies or so, but Swingers has a special place in my, and many other guys, hearts. Here he does a decent job. Especially for a new director. I suspect he lucked out on getting such a good cast of newbies. But he brought everything together well. The editing was slick, the music fit, the actors good… It all just sort of come together, Nothing against Liman, but this seems like a fortunate case of right place, right time.

A fun guys movie. It's funny and has a good cast with pretty sharp dialogue. I'd say check it out if you haven't