Chuck and Buck
**
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Cornerhouse (Manchester)
Released in the UK by Metrodome on November 10, 2000; certificate 15; 96
minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by Miguel Artera; produced by
Matthew Greenfield.
Written by Mike White.
Photographed by Chuy Chavez; edited by Jeff
Betancourt.
CAST.....
Mike White..... Buck O'Brien
Chris Weitz..... Charlie 'Chuck' Sitter
Beth Colt..... Carlyn
Lupe Ontiveros..... Beverly
Paul Weitz..... Sam
This is a tough one. "Chuck &
Buck" is terrific up until its last act, when it takes such a wrong
turn that I almost want to write two separate reviews. Hmm.
The story: Buck (Mike White) lives in the California
suburbs with his sick mother. When she dies, one of the guests at the funeral
is Chuck (Chris Weitz), who was Buck's best friend as a child, until he moved
to Los Angeles and the pair pretty much lost touch. Chuck still lives in
the big city, works as an executive in the music business, and is engaged
to be married. Buck hasn't grown up -- he sucks on lollipops, makes simple
observations in basic language and a shy tone of voice, and has his bedroom
decorated in toys and cartoon posters.
"Chuck & Buck" comments viciously on the
platitudes we speak to people we don't have any particular feelings towards,
except that we don't want to hurt them. At the funeral Chuck sits awkwardly,
not knowing what to say to Buck. "You should come and see us in L.A. sometime,"
he offers, not expecting that two weeks later Buck will have moved there.
Later, in an embarrassing pause in conversation, he invites him to a cocktail
party at his house, where Buck turns up with nothing to say to any of the
guests except for Chuck, following him around jealously as if he wants him
to come out and play.
We laugh that we do not cry. So went the old saying.
The audience with which I saw "Chuck & Buck" knew exactly what it meant.
It's creepy the way Buck walks around like a kid, plays with toys, and, mainly,
obsesses over Chuck -- lurking around his office, not getting the message
that they have nothing in common, even writing a play about how he and Chuck
are soul mates, and Chuck's fiancée is a malevolently hypnotic witch.
Often there is a strong temptation to giggle at how ridiculous this becomes.
At other times, the movie is simply too chilling, as in a crucial scene where
Buck wakes his old friend in the middle of the night and asks him to play
a game entitled "Chuck and Buck, suck and fuck".
The movie is staged, framed and edited like a
regular 35mm production, but actually shot on cheap home video. The lack
of polish brings the material unbearably close to us; "Chuck & Buck"
ranges from feeling like those uncomfortable silences where you're with someone
and haven't a clue what to say, to situations of more extreme discomfort,
like being alone on a bus when a rough-looking drunk stumbles on with a bad
attitude.
But not long before the ending there is a completely
inappropriate development that changes the subject of the movie entirely.
Involved as I was in what it appeared to about, I felt offended and betrayed.
Without revealing it explicitly, I can tell you the event cops out against
the possibility of satisfactory emotional resolution, and panders to the
obsessive personality by suggesting that stalking victims yearn for their
pursuers.
It's all downhill from there. The screenplay falls
apart in a parade of irrelevant and implausible moments that wrap up irrelevant
story details, as the audience sits frustrated, blinking in disbelief and
looking for the rewind button.
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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