• Home
  • Longform
    • Defanging the Unthinkable
      more
      View more

      Defanging the Unthinkable

      8 years ago
    • A Fitting, Impressive Goodbye
      more
      View more

      A Fitting, Impressive Goodbye

      8 years ago
    • The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"
      more
      View more

      The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"

      8 years ago
    • The Complex Morality of "No Country for Old Men"
      more
      View more

      The Complex Morality of "No Country for Old Men"

      8 years ago
  • Interviews
    • A New Way of Telling Love Stories
      more
      View more

      A New Way of Telling Love Stories

      8 years ago
    • Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"
      more
      View more

      Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"

      8 years ago
    • Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast
      more
      View more

      Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast

      8 years ago
    • The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"
      more
      View more

      The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"

      9 years ago
  • Critic-At-Large
    • Now Playing: "From Nowhere"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "From Nowhere"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "Fifty Shades Darker"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "Fifty Shades Darker"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "War on Everyone"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "War on Everyone"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "The Salesman"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "The Salesman"

      8 years ago
  • Podcast
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"

      8 years ago
Movie Mezzanine
  • Home
  • Longform
    • Defanging the Unthinkable
      more
      View more

      Defanging the Unthinkable

      8 years ago
    • A Fitting, Impressive Goodbye
      more
      View more

      A Fitting, Impressive Goodbye

      8 years ago
    • The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"
      more
      View more

      The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"

      8 years ago
    • The Complex Morality of "No Country for Old Men"
      more
      View more

      The Complex Morality of "No Country for Old Men"

      8 years ago
  • Interviews
    • A New Way of Telling Love Stories
      more
      View more

      A New Way of Telling Love Stories

      8 years ago
    • Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"
      more
      View more

      Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"

      8 years ago
    • Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast
      more
      View more

      Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast

      8 years ago
    • The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"
      more
      View more

      The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"

      9 years ago
  • Critic-At-Large
    • Now Playing: "From Nowhere"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "From Nowhere"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "Fifty Shades Darker"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "Fifty Shades Darker"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "War on Everyone"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "War on Everyone"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "The Salesman"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "The Salesman"

      8 years ago
  • Podcast
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"

      8 years ago
  • Home
  • Longform
    • Defanging the Unthinkable
      more
      View more

      Defanging the Unthinkable

      8 years ago
    • A Fitting, Impressive Goodbye
      more
      View more

      A Fitting, Impressive Goodbye

      8 years ago
    • The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"
      more
      View more

      The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"

      8 years ago
    • The Complex Morality of "No Country for Old Men"
      more
      View more

      The Complex Morality of "No Country for Old Men"

      8 years ago
  • Interviews
    • A New Way of Telling Love Stories
      more
      View more

      A New Way of Telling Love Stories

      8 years ago
    • Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"
      more
      View more

      Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"

      8 years ago
    • Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast
      more
      View more

      Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast

      8 years ago
    • The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"
      more
      View more

      The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"

      9 years ago
  • Critic-At-Large
    • Now Playing: "From Nowhere"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "From Nowhere"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "Fifty Shades Darker"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "Fifty Shades Darker"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "War on Everyone"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "War on Everyone"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "The Salesman"
      more
      View more

      Now Playing: "The Salesman"

      8 years ago
  • Podcast
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"
      more
      View more

      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"

      8 years ago
“Results”
  • Theatrical

“Results”

  • by Jake Cole
  • May 26, 2015
  • 0
  • 2954

Note. This review originally ran as part of our Atlanta Film Festival coverage.

Computer Chess confirmed Andrew Bujalski as one of the sharpest writers and most inventive directors in the no-budget scene, but just as Joe Swanberg went more conventional with Drinking Buddies, so too does the director head to slicker environs with his new romantic comedy, Results. At first blush, the film marks a radical departure for Bujalski: the production values are higher, the script follows a formulaic pattern, and actual name actors appear in front of his lens.

Gradually, however, the filmmaker’s odd sense of humor and slack pacing win out against convention. Bujalski has an unlikely lead in the great comic character actor Kevin Corrigan, who plays Danny, a working-class schlub suddenly thrust into the 1% thanks to an unexpected inheritance. Corrigan allows the most unflattering portrait of himself to be taken: hunched over with a paunch and ruddy complexion, with his hair styled to look like a burned forest, all charred wisps barely clinging to stripped earth. Danny’s nouveau-riche ineptitude leads him to offer outlandish sums to anyone who can come over and teach him how to operate his new HDTV, but his good fortune also prompts him to reflect sullenly on his recent divorce. To get his mojo back, he decides to hire a personal trainer to slim down.

Corrigan’s sad-sack routine, complete with frequent reveries of tuneless guitar noodling to pass the time, instantly breaks the film of a sense of pace, and his turbulent, unpredictable movements provide a great foil for the disciplinarian realm of fitness. That strictly modulated world is epitomized by Trevor (Guy Pearce), a small-time gym owner who believes in going big with a cockamamie philosophy of wellness that incorporates Wikipedia-grade research into Eastern and Western therapeutic practices and health techniques. Pearce nails the frequently blurred line a gym manager navigates between intimate counselor and sales agent, producing an aggressive optimism that can be read as ingratiatingly sincere or empty flattery.

The film is at its best when it relates to Trevor’s personal and professional ambitions, which he delivers in speech culled from various self-help and entrepreneurial literature. When Trevor gets going, he recalls the programmers of Computer Chess in his obsessive reliance on esoteric, insular professional lingo, and as much as his physical fitness and overriding calm gives the impression of a centered, wise person, the emptiness of his words masks an anxiety and confusion that places him closer to Danny than he’d like to admit. The same is true of Kat (Cobie Smulders), the hot-tempered personal trainer who forms an ambiguous triangle with Danny and Trevor.

The romantic threads of the film never congeal, but the film is at its best when the nominal cliches collapse from sheer inaction into something more dissolute and harder to identify. Bujalski can compress entire personalities into strange, deprecating asides like Danny keeping a brutally honest food diary by taking photo after photo of the pizza he downs by himself, or the hilariously overwrought hype video Trevor cuts for his gym. If the love triangle is lopsided, the three characters align in more equilateral fashion in that their distinctive personalities share a core insecurity of having far surpassed the age at which they should know what they want from life, much less work toward achieving those goals.As he did with his last film, Bujalski takes exaggerated types and, by focusing on their quirks to the point that they become banal and relatable, turns his characters into recognizable humans.

Tags
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Related posts

  • KenjiF
5
“Anomalisa” Is A Genuinely Enlivening Work of Art

“Anomalisa” Is A Genuinely Enlivening Work of Art

9 years ago
  • JakeCole
16
Back to Basics in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Back to Basics in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

9 years ago
  • Tomris Laffly
6
David O. Russell’s Fulfilling “Joy”

David O. Russell’s Fulfilling “Joy”

9 years ago

One thought on ““Results””

  1. Pingback: Halftime Report: The Best Films of 2015 So Far | Movie Mezzanine

About Us

Movie Mezzanine is an online publication dedicated to covering the medium that connects us all, one film at a time. With writers stationed around the globe, we offer a uniquely diverse perspective on cinema, both old and new. To learn more about us, go here.

Spotlight

Putting the Geek to the Plow

Cleantalk Pixel