Honestly, I just watched this because I've had an Instagram crush on lead actress Dasha Nekrasova for years (it was a bit stronger about 5 years ago but those things always live on in an underlying sense, ya know). Her profile always said she was an actress but I never got to see her in anything, until now. I was not disappointed in the slightest. I don't know her IRL but it seems like director/co-writer/co-star Eugene Kotlyarenko and her have created a way to simply display parts of their true selves through the characters in this film. Dasha's performance is raw, honest, at times intimidating, and often far more erotic than I expected.
This film is perhaps the most realistic representation of existence for 20/30something's in L.A. this decade, aside from the exaggerated bits, like for example, how quickly and consistently Eugene's character gets responses and follow-through's on Tinder, but that's all just surreal fun. A great majority of couples I know who moved to Los Angeles together (including myself) at some point ended up continuing to live with each other after a break-up, which is one of the primary plot elements in this movie. In the beginning, the film felt maybe a bit too much like a self-serving vehicle for director and star Kotlyarenko to spotlight himself as an eccentric weirdo, but as the movie progressed, it began to balance out and sculpt itself out as having more of a cohesive structure and spirit of it's own.
Then, another great surprise was seeing an acquaintance of mine Elisha Drons in there. Every moment with that man in reality is like you're living in a movie, so it makes sense to finally see him in one. His character introduction was probably my favorite scene in the whole movie. "Robes! Do you want me to do it again?..... Robes!....... Do you want me to do it again?..." Mad man, I tell you.
Any way, I'm not sure who I would recommend this to but I got a real KICK out of it. It definitely fits in nicely with the MUMBLECORE sub genre, though it's far quirkier than most of those movies, and in my opinion, better. And, it's intriguing and nice to see that the film's primary creator has his career continuing on a legit path. His recent film SPREE, starring Stranger Things' star Joe Keery (also the boyfriend of another one of my primary Hollywood crushes, Maika Monroe - what's with all the crush connections here?), looks rather innovative and has been recommended to me by several people since it's release - it is total coincidence that that film was by the same guy who made this. Very curious to check it out, and to observe Eugene and Dasha's filmography from here on out. Cheers.
