by Anthony Mullins
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Isaac Krasner, Dora Madison, David Johnson III, Taj Cross
Intro:
… funny, painfully awkward but always authentic …
Ever since Steven Soderbergh’s Sex Lies and Videotape, small-scale and sharply observed indie comedies have become a go-to genre for early-career directors looking to make their mark — Before Sunrise, The Squid and the Whale, Juno and Sideways all marked significant steps forward for their directors. Indie-comedies are a great way for young storytellers to show off their emotional range on a small budget, allowing a small low stakes comedy like Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale to surprise audiences with its depth, heart and distinctiveness.
Add to the genre Big Boys by writer/director Corey Sherman.
Set largely in a campsite, the film follows Jamie (Isaac Krasner), an awkward teenager who is on a camping trip with his bullying older brother Will (Taj Cross), his older cousin Allie (Dora Madison), and her boyfriend Dan (David Johnson III), who is an unexpected addition to the trip.
Jamie is a nervous young kid, who talks constantly and needs to plan everything carefully, so news of Dan’s attendance initially rattles him. But Dan is friendly and copes with Jamie’s numerous quirks, including his strong opinions about what spices to use with burger mince. They also bond because Jamie is tall and heavyset for this age and Dan was a ‘big boy’ too. Before long, Jamie only wants to hang with Dan — and that’s because Jamie has started to crush on Dan.
What follows is funny, painfully awkward but always authentic as Jamie struggles with these new feelings and what to do with them. This is classic indie-comedy territory as the ultra low stakes of a teenage crush blossoms into something heart-felt and universal.
Central to the success of the film is the performance of Isaac Krasner as Jamie, deftly juggling vulnerability with precise comic timing without resorting to cheap laughs. It would not be surprising if we see a lot more of Krasner in the near future. He is skillfully supported by David Johnson, who provides the warmth and chemistry required to make Jamie and Dan’s relationship work without things getting weird and “icky”, given their age difference. Taj Cross as Will is an appropriately sadistic older brother with a hidden heart, and Dora Madison as Allie is the cool older cousin everyone wishes they had.
Writer/director Corey Sherman maintains a superb balance between character and just playing-it-for-laughs with a sensitive directorial style that keeps things understated and free-flowing. Similarly, Gus Bendinelli’s cinematography is skilled and subtle and never distracts from the lovely performances at the heart of the film.
This is a classic small-scale, low-stakes indie comedy that is big on authenticity and heart.
