Director: Jay Duplass
Writer: Jay Duplass, Michael Strassner
Stars: Michael Strassner, Liz Larsen, Olivia Luccardi
Synopsis: A newly sober man’s Christmas Eve dental emergency leads to an unexpected romance with his older dentist as they explore Baltimore together.
It’s easy to set a film in a city that many people know. It’s easy to build a story about a place people know even if they’ve never been there before. It’s difficult to capture the spirit of a place and translate it so that outsiders don’t completely feel left out. The filmmakers behind The Baltimorons obviously love and know Baltimore and its people. They take us not to the touristy parts. They take us to where the people are and where those people come to like each other everyday.
The great thing about Jay Duplass and Michael Strassner’s script is that it feels lived in. These two people, Cliff (Michael Strassner) and Didi (Liz Larsen), feel like they were plucked from the air. Cliff is a guy who always feels he has to be on, but instead of the broad comedy lens where it’s a joke a minute, this funniness is supposed to fall flat. That straight woman act isn’t faked or because Didi’s in on Cliff’s joke. Her confusion and disinterest is because she just doesn’t understand that Cliff is trying to be funny. There are these barriers between the two characters that Strassner and Duplass break down layer by layer and truth by truth until the jokes become funny because we know Didi’s seen the real Cliff.
It’s easy to want a comedy that has laughs every few seconds, but it’s so much more fulfilling to laugh as you cry or as you cringe. Many of Cliff’s one off jokes and bits bring to the surface the deep conflict within him. The way he expresses truth is often through a joke or a bit. One of the most enthralling scenes is as Cliff takes Didi to his old improv stomping grounds and is cajoled into doing his most famous character. When no one volunteers to be his partner, Didi joins him on stage. It’s awkward, painful, and funny as Cliff is a tough scene partner because he’s nervous as he’s never done this sober. Ultimately, though, this is where Cliff is able to say what he’s wanted to say for a while. It’s where Cliff and Didi realize that this, whatever it is that this is, is something more than just two lonely people on Christmas Eve. This is a connection. Though, the connection wouldn’t work if not for the two leads.
Michael Strassner is a force of nature on screen. He is an incredible physical comedian. He knows how to work with a situation and really sell it. As much as he is great at the bits he performs, he’s still able to be devastating when need be. Cliff is a guy who has a lot of walls up and a lot of issues he needs to take care of. Strassner is able to bring out that vulnerability and that human side of the Cliff who would prefer we just see a joke machine. He taps into something magical and winning in his performance.
Liz Larsen is a truly wonderful surprise. She plays straight, she plays playful, she plays vulnerable, and she plays sharp and tenacious. Through Larsen’s fantastic performance we see a woman taking some time to be the person she wants to be. Larsen finds the depth of Didi and shows us who this woman is and how she lived pre-Cliff and how she might live going forward. Larsen feels as if she’s known Didi all her life.
Strassner and Larsen are able to take a disparate pair and turn them into a romantic possibility. Together they have a chemistry that is like an improv exercise. You see them say “yes, and” to everything because it’s plain that for both of them they don’t entirely know what’s going on, but they don’t want it to end. It’s a connection that is the spark they each need in their lives.
The Baltimorons is strangely easy to love. If you look at the film on paper, you might say it couldn’t work, but it does, it really, really does. It’s a sort of throwback to the types of films director and co-writer Jay Duplass and his brother Mark made their names with. It’s not quite mumblecore and it’s not all the way to Harold and Maude, but The Baltimorons runs with its take on the odd couple type of romance and creates something utterly unique. It’s funny, complicated, and not to be missed, especially if you like a Christmas romance.
