Wanderlust (2012) - Wain, Marino and stars Rudd and Aniston cause bellowing laughs in frank satire

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+ Best Comedy of the Year 
+ Best Satire of the Year

Make the jump with Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, this poster for David Wain's Wanderlust seems to beckon us

A sympathetic New-Yorker couple buy their first apartment and immediately fall into a difficult financial situation, which makes them make a radical shift in their lives, moving to a hippie commune called Elysium.

David Wain (Role Models (2008)) returns with a hilarious comedy, co-written by Wain and Ken Marino (Diggers (2006)), which gives Paul Rudd (The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)) and Jennifer Aniston (Derailed (2005)) plenty of space to be the terrific and very funny stars they are. - Especially Aniston is wonderful here, coming to the film with a blessed lot of enthusiasm, which also sees her coupled onscreen with her later husband Justin Theroux (Mulholland Drive (2001)). (The two had met in 2008 and reconnected on this film; they eventually got hitched in 2015 and still are.)
Wanderlust is driven by snappy comedy, filled with fun lines and with a keen eye for the absurdities of both the hippie commune and the extremely consumerist lifestyle of Rudd's character's brother's family, which it is contrasted against.
Alan Alda (Gone Are the Days! (1963)) has a stellar supporting role, and Joe Lo Truglio (Escape My Life (2012, TV-series)) and co-writer-star Marino are also both strong as the commune's nudist and Rudd's super-douche brother, respectively.
Wanderlust doesn't reinvent the wheel, and not all in it succeeds, but it is an open-minded laugh-fest only a fool would reject.

Related posts:

David Wain: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
They Came Together (2014) - Rudd and Poehler clown around in Wain's romcom spoof

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 23.8 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Wanderlust premiered 16 February (Los Angeles) and runs 98 minutes. Jessica Alba turned down the role that was eventually played by Malin Akerman. Filming took place in Georgia, including Atlanta, and in New York from September 2010 - ?. The film opened #8 to a disappointing 6.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 17.4 mil. $ (73.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1.7 mil. $ (7.1 %) and Mexico with 0.9 mil. $ (3.8 %). Video sales accrued an additional 3.8 mil. $. It doesn't change the film's status, if added to its theatrical gross. For some reason audiences didn't at all turn up in the kind of numbers needed in order to make the film a success. Wanderlust is fresh at 60 % with a 5.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Wanderlust?

They Came Together (2014) - Rudd and Poehler clown around in Wain's romcom spoof

♥♥♥

 

+ Best New York Movie of the Year

 

A funny poster for David Wain's They Came Together, which boasts informative statements from Deadline.com and an amusing note in the bottom

 

A charismatic couple from New York, - which, as we are reminded on the poster and in the movie itself, is so central for the story that it's almost like a character in itself, - relates to a friend couple over dinner the story of how they met, fell in love, broke up, and got back together.

Amy Pohler (Inside Out (2015)) and Paul Rudd (Ant-Man (2015)) are in high spirits and rack in several laughs in this funny farce, which also features the amusing antics of Christopher Meloni (Small Time (2014)), Jason Mantzoukas (Dirty Grandpa (2016)), Michael Shannon (Take Shelter (2011)) and others.

The method of production is 'rushed', (relatively) low-budget, 'throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks', and so there's a number of gags, particularly some of the more obscure and of the meta-comical, that just don't succeed. They Came Together, however, is so full of shenanigans that it has enough juice to still be a pretty funny film.

It is written by co-writer-director David Wain (Role Models (2008)) and Michael Showalter (Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015)).

 

Related posts:

 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3 mil. $

Box office: Unknown

= Unknown (but likely a big or huge flop)

[They Came Together premiered January 24 (Sundance) and runs 83 minutes. Filming took place in New York and Los Angeles. The film was screened at 4 US festivals, one English, had an undisclosed limited run in the US and Canada and releases in the UK and Ireland. It was released simultaneously as VoD in the US by production company Lionsgate. Whether it made them any money as such is, regrettably, impossible to know, as no numbers are made public, but it seems most likely that theatrically, which is what is accounted for here, the film was a big or huge flop. They Came Together is fresh at 69 % with a 6.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of They Came Together?