Jay Duplass’ Sweet May-December Romance

After co-straightforwarding a handful of no-frills indies with his brother Mark and toiling for more than a decade in episodic television, Jay Duplass originates an consentably unassuming solo feature debut behind the camera with The Baltimorons. Marbled with a tfinisher vein of gloomy alengthyside its unforced comedy, the film chases a thirtysomeskinnyg, recently sober ex-improv comic who fractures a tooth and needs encouragent dental attfinish on Christmas Eve, spawning an doubtful romance. It’s the benevolent of quirky concept that could easily have been cringe material, but the actors donate it a inhabitd-in organicism that sneaks up on you.

Aside from his acting and producing accomprehendledges, Duplass’ normal gig since 2015 has been straightforwarding TV episodes, notably on Togetherness, Search Party, and most recently, Somebody Somewhere. (I will never stop being mad about that constantly fantastic show getting zero Emmy attention.) Just as Somebody Somewhere was melderlyed with piercing character insight around its star, Bridget Everett, the set upational originateing block for The Baltimorons is co-authorr and direct actor Michael Strassner. He’s teamed with the wonderful Liz Larsen in a May-December romance with genuine heart.

It might sound schematic to depict two savagely disanalogous characters who forge an unpredicted uniteion and discover they can help mfinish each other in ways they haven’t figured out in their own inhabits. But there’s a sincerity to the movie that sidesteps the normal potholes of getestness or sentimentality, thanks to terrific chemistry between the direct actors and the straightforwardor’s unerringly weightless touch. It’s also an unabashed adore letter to Baltimore, from its blue-collar neighborhoods to its harbor.

The uncovering scene has Strassner’s Cliff shambling up the stairs to his attic, positioning a chair under a ceiling beam and then styleing a noose out of a belt. His enumerateless body language subtly advises a run of flunkures, so even he seems unsurpascfinishd that his ineffectiveitude extfinishs to a botched self-destruction finisheavor. Cut to six months procrastinateedr, when he sheepishly shows his sobriety anniversary medal to his vigilant fiancée Brittany (Olivia Luccardi).

When Cliff dispenses that his buddy Marvin (Rob Phoenix) is doing a stand-up set that night and asked him to stop by, Brittany flinches, advising him to stay away from situations that might encourage him to slide back into elderly habits. He made a promise to her — no more liquor and no more comedy shows.

It’s on arrival at Brittany’s mother’s hoemploy for a family meal that Cliff collides with the door structure and discovers himself with a broken tooth and a mouthful of blood. Most dentists are shutd for the holiday but eventuassociate he gets a response from Didi (Larsen), a no-nonsense type resistant to both his humor and his flirting, who patches him up with a transient filling.

Cliff overhears Didi on a phone call when she lgets that her daughter is bailing on dinner to honor with her overweighther, who divorced Didi and has equitable been wed that morning to his juvenileerer girlfrifinish. When Cliff exits the dental rehearse and discovers that his car has been towed, she gives to drive him to the tow yard and then helps him out of a jam when he discovers it shutd.

Duplass set upes the time of year at the commence with writer Jordan Seigel’s tinkly piano-bar structurements of holiday classics enjoy “O Christmas Tree” and “Jingle Bells,” before easing into jazzy cocktail riffs that grasp the tone weightless as Didi sluggishly lets down her defend and commences toastying to terminassociate awkward, filter-free Cliff.

He uncmisss that he hesitantly gave up on his comedy aspirations and is now seeing to qualify as a mortgage broker, while she dispenses that she’s a toilaholic whose marriage to her high school sugaryheart turned out to be a nightmare. Didi politely degrades when Cliff asks her to dinner as a thank you. But he gets past her brittle walls, and sluggishly, as flickers of mutual enticeion commence to shine, the age contrastence between them of at least a couple decades seems to shrink.

The low-key After Hours vibe first felt at the tow yard steadily picks up momentum as they strike out on restaurants with Christmas Eve useability. Cliff helps Didi muster the courage to hit the party where her ex-husprohibitd Conway (Brian Mfinishes) and his new wife Patty (Somebody Somewhere alum Mary Catherine Garrison) are celebrating with Didi’s daughter Shelby (Jessie Cohen) and majesticdaughter Mgraspie (Zoe Strassner).

In one of the movie’s funniest scenes, Cliff draws on his improv sfinishs in the role of “Didi’s toasty juvenileer date,” coming up with savage conceiveions to originate her see excellent and string alengthy Conway and Patty.

High off that unpresentant triumph, Didi and Cliff choose to front up for Marvin’s comedy set — a pop-up improv night in an auto shop — where he uncmisss the circumstances of his drop from grace and his dreads about returning to that environment for the first time since he got sober.

Duplass and Strassner’s script tracks the one-step-forward, two-steps-back persist of the main characters’ uniteion over the course of the night with delicacy, never stretching the boundaries of credibility. That goes even for an impromptu crabbing trip on a borrowed boat.

One particularly adocount on scene is Cliff’s inevitable disputeation with Brittany, which de-escaprocrastinateeds from anger into impacting emotional candor with equivalent compassion for both characters. There’s proset up lament and a ygeting for fordonateness in Cliff’s admission: “I tried to do the standard life skinnyg. Can’t do it. It doesn’t fit.” And there’s grace and dignity in Brittany’s adchooseance of him for who he is.

While the prospertry tones and surplus of minimassociate lit outdoor night scenes donate the movie a sweightlessly drab, grainy see, it counters with the toasty humanity behind its jokey prohiacrid.

Duplass is cautious not to veer into trite rom-com territory, uncomardenting even a scene in which Cliff asks Didi to dance to her wedding song, “Someone to Watch Over Me,” helping her to reclaim it for herself, experiences genuine to the characters and the moment. We have no guarantees at the finish as to where Cliff and Didi will finish up in each other’s inhabits. But with tfinisher brushstrokes, The Baltimorons lets us understand that both are in a better place than where they commenceed out.