"Write what you know" is advice that could be salvation for people temporarily or permanently deprived of creative abilities. For one man this advice turned out to be ticket to Hollywood success. In mid 1990s Jon Favreau was just one of the many young men living in Los Angeles and trying to become a name in motion picture industry. For most people such dreams remain only dreams and the years could be spent in waiting for the elusive "big break" that would never come. Favreau found ingenious way to overcome that situation by writing screenplay about it. The screenplay was turned into Swingers, low-budget 1996 comedy directed by Doug Liman. The film was later picked by Miramax for distribution, thus becoming Favreau's big break.
In this film Jon Favreau plays Mike Peters, young actor who left New York in order to pursue career in Hollywood. Like for many young men in Hollywood, that career is far from being successful and Mike barely makes ends meat. This doesn't seem to be his biggest problem - six years ago he broke up with his girlfriend and he still can't get over it. His only comfort is company of few friends who are struggling and self-deluding actors like himself - Sue (played by Patrick Van Horn), fan of violent video games who tries to act like tough guy on the street; Rob (played by Ron Livingston) who had left role of Hamlet in New York theatre only to pursue role of Goofy in Disneyland; and, Trent Walker (played by Vince Vaughn) who thinks of himself as unstoppable ladies' man. Trent desperately tries to take Mike out of his depression by giving him advice how to pick up women, but all those efforts usually lead to depressing results.
Favreau's script for Swingers doesn't have much of a plot and the film is actually collection of loosely connected comical vignettes that describe more humorous aspects of otherwise depressive situation. This comedy is based less on the situation and more on the character; as such it is very honest, but also very humane towards its characters. It shows how many of them live in the world of illusions, but it still make audience empathise with them and their plight. This is mostly due to good acting, especially in the case of Favreau who later became one of the more recognisable character actors in Hollywood. Vince Vaughn also made great impression as his arrogant but well-meaning friend. Director Doug Liman also used this script as an opportunity to comment on cultural and other trends in Hollywood - especially fascination with Tarantino and newly discovered filmophilia. Swingers is far from perfect - the segment set in Las Vegas is completely unnecessary and the ending is somewhat mishandled - but this film in general shows that enough honesty and humanity aren't incompatible with comedy in modern Hollywood.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on February 3rd 2004)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/10218-swingers
Critic: AA
Another classic film. This movie was so 90s because of the lose plot. That was the style back then.
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