REVIEW: ‘Slackers’ is a sad, dull and lifeless comedy
Damn those deceiving movie previews.
Two minutes of flashy music, clips of the feature’s bright spots and boom, I was convinced Slackers was going to be the runaway comedy hit of this dull, lifeless movie month called February. I should have known better, especially since the film’s director, Dewey Nicks, is best known for his Ameritrade series of television commercials.
Not a promising upstart, but I bit anyway. Now I want to dry heave.
With regret, here is the meaty plot. Behold the creative power of drugs.
Three college buddies are cheating their way through college – the fictional Holden University – and one of their gang, Dave (Devon Sawa), is caught by Ethan (Jason Schwartzman) and is subsequently blackmailed. The hopelessly moronic Ethan wants the studly Dave to fetch him a date with campus cutie, Angela (James King). Predictably, while in study groups with his cohorts in transgression, Jeff (Michael C. Maronna) and Sam (Jason Segel), Dave begins to fall in love with Angela. Can you say recycled? I can, so I won’t bore you with the remainder of the plot. You probably already know how the film ends.
Laced inside this soup-kitchen storyline are, of course, moments where flatulence is king, masturbation is something you do with a sock (rip-off from American Pie) and an old folk song, and sponge baths for wrinkled B movie queens’ breasts are typical norms for young college men and women. Maybe you’ve washed Mamie Van Doren’s breasts recently, but I, for one, have not.
The word stupid doesn’t pay enough homage to this trend in filmmaking. It is pathetic, lifeless, characterless and without any redeeming qualities.
The filmmakers’ rationale seems to be cinematic shock therapy, and this is the license they use to exhibit crudeness. For the most part, I can live with Hollywood’s bright attempts at making the audience’s eyes pop out. American Pie and There’s Something About Mary did this well, but Slackers drags the technique repeatedly through the mud.
More than anything, I feel bad for Schwartzman. He was neurotically charming in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, but if Slackers was his idea for a breakthrough performance, he should fire his agent and flog himself for choosing such an insipid and lifeless role.
Instead of wasting $6, rent American Pie and laugh along with true comedic genius.