Art house robbery
Jun 17, 2009 |
Skills Like This, the new indie darling (winner of the 2007 SXSW Audience Award) playing at Kahala Mall, begins with the world’s worst play not written by Mitch Albom, with numerous cutaways to show how bored the audience is. One gentleman, the grandfather of the playwright, suffers a heart attack during the finale, and the surrounding family members seem all too happy for the chance to get out of his newest work, titled The Onion Dance, alive.
It’s a brave opening, because as Max Solomon (Spencer Berger) contemplates the sheer awfulness of his work, he realizes he’s not cut out to be a writer. He’s too caught up with big ideas and grandiose, melodramatic statements, and lacks the skill to tie his narrative together. This, unfortunately, is where reality mirrors the celluloid world, because Berger is the screenwriter, and Skills Like This suffers from the same problems as his fictional characters’ play.
Ah, sweet irony.
The first 20 minutes offer a lot of fun. Max is joined at the hip by his two best friends, serving in turn as id and ego. For the latter, there is Dave (Gabriel Tigerman), the timid, pragmatic one with the job where his boss calls him by the wrong name. Tommy (Brian Phelan) plays the id, constantly swaggering with bravado and perfectly willing to say the wrong thing at the right time, while still happy having no job and living with his parents.
Max half-listens to the two sides of his psyche, trying to come to terms with his lack of skills. If he fails as a writer, what is he qualified for? (Cheer up Max, there’s always publishing.) As the two joke about robbing the bank across the street, Max follows up words with action–and gets away with it. He’s finally good at something. His newfound skill at crime gives him confidence and he begins a mini petty crime spree, never interested in the monetary awards, just taking thrill and solace in the act itself. He even admits his crime to Lucy, the cute bank teller who handed him the money, and makes another score of sorts.
If Skills Like This had the sense to follow the flowering romance between Max and Lucy, this might have been a much more enjoyable film. But Max’s action also serves as a catalyst to his friends, with Dave deciding to drink a lot, call in sick and tell off his boss, while Tommy dons a suit and tries to apply for a job. From here the film desperately apes other indie darlings, practically bludgeoning you with how damn quirky it is. Like the ham-handedness of Max’s play, it’s attempting to peel away the layers of its characters. But when you get to the core of all involved, there’s nothing there.
