Swingers

1996

4/5 Stars

“You’re SO money!  Now kill the bunny!”

Written, directed, and starring Jon Favreau, Swingers is the film that first put Mr. Favreau on the Hollywood radar.  Made on a shoestring budget ($200,000), the film grossed $4.5 million and still has a following today.  Swingers has spawned several impersonators in the bro/buddy/dude genre, but while often imitated, it has rarely been duplicated.

Strangely enough, I had never seen this movie until recently.  I went in expecting HBO’s “Entourage” in movie form, but what I got was a bit more nuanced than that.  Sure, there is a lot of “guys being guys” nonsense (much of it coming from the outspoken Trent, played brilliantly by Vince Vaughn), but I was surprised by the amount of character development in the movie. 

The plot revolves around Mike (Jon Favreau), a would-be Hollywood comedian, who is six months out from a brutal breakup with a longtime girlfriend.  As his personal and professional life stumbles, he relies on the support of his friends- mainly Trent and Rob (Ron Livingston) – to help him see things through.  While Trent is the show-stopping loudmouth that tries to jar Mike from his funk, Rob is more soft-spoken and outwardly sympathetic.  While these characters aren’t above giving one another shit and talking trash (especially over games of NHL on the SEGA Genesis), it is evident that they really care for one another and want to see things work out for Mike.  (They come off more as nice guys and less as pure assholes as the crew in Entourage.) 

I went in expecting the film to be a straight comedy, but it was more of a drama/comedy hybrid.  There are a lot of quotable lines (mostly coming from Trent), and while the movie can feel dated at times (VERY 90s) and the pacing sometimes seems slow, this is a well written and believable piece for anyone that has taken a long time to recover from a bad breakup.  Some of the “bro” dialogue can be over the top, but I thought this showed the movie wasn’t taking itself TOO seriously.  The actors seem to be playing slightly exaggerated versions of themselves, which just adds to the realism (and sense of fun) to the whole piece.