Saturday, October 5, 2024

Lousy Carter (2023)

 The new Bob Byington film. 'Lousy Carter' (David Krumholtz) got his nickman from his lousy performance on the high school golf team. It is now 25 years since high school graduation, once a promising animated filmmaker, now teaching literature at a small college, with a dying mother, semi estranged sister and still not married, Lousy's lousy life gets even lousyer when he is told he has six months to live. Carter decides 'what the hell' and proceeds to burn bridges, career and personal, telling only an ex girlfriend that he is dying.

Dry, dark comedy is both short and layered, with an interesting cast of supporting characters (including Martin and Starr Olvia Thirlby), the film is deceptively well structured, with a suppressing amount of subtlety, it benefits from repeat viewing. At times a sort of ensemble character study, I love Byington's casting, especially of his female characters, Jocelyn DeBoar, Trieste Kelly Dunn and new comer Luxy Banner all shine with minimal screen time. ***

No comments: