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

♥♥♥♥

+ 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?

Diggers (2006) - Marino and Dieckmann's film is a pleasant, funny change of pace

♥♥♥♥

The pleasant, low-key poster for Katherine Dieckmann's Diggers

QUICK REVIEW:

We are in a fishing community just an hour away from Manhattan in the 1970s. Shellfish giant South Shell is taking the work from the local clam diggers there. A young guy, Hunt's fisherman father now dies and leaves his boat to his son.

Paul Rudd (Ant-Man (2015)) is great as the middle-aged, lonesome man, who bitterly 'protects' his sister and comes up with excuses for his own unrealized dreams. He shares one sexy clam scene with Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under (2001-05)) in Diggers.
The humor of the film bears witness of a large absurd-comical talent in writer/co-star Ken Marino (Role Models (2008)). Diggers presents a neat little story with well-balanced doses of warmth and reality. It's really funny to boot.
Katherine Dieckmann (Motherhood (2009)) directed it.

Maura Tierney and Paul Rudd in Katherine Dieckmann's Diggers

Cost: 28 mil. $ (reported)
Box office: 24 mil. $ (reported)
= Uncertainty
[Both numbers are from Diggers' Wikipedia page, but I am skeptical as to the truthfulness of both of them. The budget seems very high, and the film grossed just under 60k $ in North American theaters in its very small theatrical release there. It premiered simultaneously on the HDNet channel that funded the film, and was released on DVD just days after, much as with Steven Soderbergh's Bubble (2005). Diggers' commercial destiny is hard to probe, but I will count it as a flop. Dieckmann's next film, the maligned Motherhood with Uma Thurman, seems to have ended her movie career prematurely.]

What do you think of Diggers?