The California No

Witty with a solid dose of sarcasm. I can see why it won so many awards.

I finally realized this $25K budget film actually has a purpose: When you think your life sucks and you just can't go on, watch this film, learn how others have it much worse than you. Noah Segan played his cuck role perfectly in that he always looked on the verge of crying.

Relationships are complicated. Brings to focus the all to common oddity of how two people can share such close quarters yet are miles apart.

Awful. The actors are leaden and wooden, the relationships are cliche and painful to watch, and the "hero" is unlikeable. The only redeeming person is Jocko, who is a cliche. Samantha deserved better; she was the only other person in this movie that I thought was decent. And what's up with that ending? Spoiler-you will scratch your head when it's over, wondering "What the hell did I just spend the last 12 hrs watching?" Oh, it's not 12 hours long? Just felt like it. Two wine glasses down.

The main character has no job. Does he ever look for one? How come he and his wife are going to a therapist when they're broke? Why is he smoking cigarettes when he's broke? The guy dresses like a bum: unbuttoned dress shirt hanging out over his jeans. Needs a haircut. Appears to have no job skills. People come into his life and the viewer doesn't know who they are.

No backstory for any of the characters. Director likes to show main character driving around from one place to another. No character development, no back story, no idea how the characters came together or how they know each other. Abrupt ending to story.

I didn't care for the profanity, either. Maybe that's the way they talk in Southern California now. They didn't when I lived there. All the characters just seemed to be low class to me.