THE OVERNIGHT (Patrick Brice). 79 minutes. Opens Friday (June 26). Rating: NNNN
Watch online: iTunes
In The Overnight, Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling play a couple newly arrived in Los Angeles and looking to make new friends. So naturally, they’re delighted to be invited to dinner by the parents (Jason Schwartzman, Judith Godrèche) of their son’s playmate… only to discover these hipster sophisticates have some very odd expectations for the evening.
Produced by Jay and Mark Duplass, the film has the same fascination with emotional discomfort as the brothers’ earlier projects Baghead and Cyrus, but writer/director Patrick Brice comes at his tensions from a slightly different angle, catching little notes of conflict and picking at them until they turn into fault lines.
Scott and Schilling make a great team it takes a little more time for Schwartzman and Godrèche to fully realize their own dynamic, but that’s a function of the story more than anything else. And once all the motivations come into focus, The Overnight pivots gracefully from awkward social comedy to something genuinely complex – and even poignant.
See our interview with Adam Scott here.
