Lynn Shelton's Laggies, given her casting choices and the distributional/marketing approaches taken for the film, is her most mainstream effort yet. When Shelton began writing and directing, she serviced the mumblecore niche that wound up helping the careers of actors like Mark Duplass, but rarely did she indulge in any of the praise for her work when it was clear that she possessed something that made her films successful. Shelton's not only one of the few female directors on the rise in American cinema, but one of the few making very naturalistic dramas that frequently show characters wading in the water when it comes to their life decisions and, in turn, making regrettable decisions.
Laggies focuses on Keira Knightley's Megan, an aimless twenty-eight-year-old, who went to college, but enjoys her pampered lifestyle of being a sign-holder for her father's (Jeff Garlin) tax firm. The tipping point for Megan recognizing her own aimlessness and disorganized life is when her boyfriend Anthony (Mark Webber) proposes marriage in state of fantasy rather than reality at one of her friends' weddings. On top of that, Megan catches her father cheating on her mother outside of the wedding. Following all this, Megan winds up fleeing and running into a teen girl named Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) who, along with a group of her friends, are trying to score alcohol outside of a supermarket.
It is right here where Megan admires their simplistic desires, caves, and purchases some beer and wine coolers for them. Megan is at a crossroads with her life, where she can't make any decision without disappointing or hurting somebody else. The fact that she can do this small favor and see all parties before her satisfied, combined with the youthful desire to obtain the forbidden fruit, resonates with her to the point where she agrees to ditch her friend's wedding to hang out with the teenagers. Here, she learns of their problems, their romantic difficulties, and so forth, and she's reminded of her days with her friends, smoking Djarum Blacks and just in search of a good time and nothing more.
Megan begins spending the most time with Annika, even growing close to her father (Sam Rockwell) upon revealing the real reason why she's staying at his home (she doesn't want to go home and wants time away from her own family). This allows for both parties to be satisfied, as Annika doesn't have any close friends and needs an older, wiser guardian for whom to receive advice and Annika's father is starved for company.
Laggies is the kind of film that, with a lesser script that went for the ribald side of Annika and Megan's time together instead of the more tender sequences, could've easily been a film much fluffier than it already is. The story is notably more plotted than Shelton's other works like Your Sister's Sister, and moves closer and closer to the mainstream whilst retaining that mumblecoric charm that's been instilled in her work since the beginning. Laggies only really makes a grave mistake when it starts ending up more like a romantic comedy than a film about the struggle to find and stick with an identity for oneself, and that gray area makes Shelton's film, as a whole, a bit rocky.
However, few films are willing to tackle these kind of complex emotions especially with the layeredness that Shelton has provided. We learn a lot from watching Knightley's very vivid and natural body language, especially in her facial expressions, and a lot that goes unsaid in this film can be easily revealed and discussed. The entire project, even with its more plotted elements and specific structure, feels natural and a winning step up from Shelton's mediocre Touchy Feely. In a world of sloppy romantic comedies and even more incredulous ones, I can't think of a reason not to see Laggies.
Starring: Kiera Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Sam Rockwell, Jeff Garlin, and Mark Webber. Directed by: Lynn Shelton.
Laggies focuses on Keira Knightley's Megan, an aimless twenty-eight-year-old, who went to college, but enjoys her pampered lifestyle of being a sign-holder for her father's (Jeff Garlin) tax firm. The tipping point for Megan recognizing her own aimlessness and disorganized life is when her boyfriend Anthony (Mark Webber) proposes marriage in state of fantasy rather than reality at one of her friends' weddings. On top of that, Megan catches her father cheating on her mother outside of the wedding. Following all this, Megan winds up fleeing and running into a teen girl named Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) who, along with a group of her friends, are trying to score alcohol outside of a supermarket.
It is right here where Megan admires their simplistic desires, caves, and purchases some beer and wine coolers for them. Megan is at a crossroads with her life, where she can't make any decision without disappointing or hurting somebody else. The fact that she can do this small favor and see all parties before her satisfied, combined with the youthful desire to obtain the forbidden fruit, resonates with her to the point where she agrees to ditch her friend's wedding to hang out with the teenagers. Here, she learns of their problems, their romantic difficulties, and so forth, and she's reminded of her days with her friends, smoking Djarum Blacks and just in search of a good time and nothing more.
Megan begins spending the most time with Annika, even growing close to her father (Sam Rockwell) upon revealing the real reason why she's staying at his home (she doesn't want to go home and wants time away from her own family). This allows for both parties to be satisfied, as Annika doesn't have any close friends and needs an older, wiser guardian for whom to receive advice and Annika's father is starved for company.
Laggies is the kind of film that, with a lesser script that went for the ribald side of Annika and Megan's time together instead of the more tender sequences, could've easily been a film much fluffier than it already is. The story is notably more plotted than Shelton's other works like Your Sister's Sister, and moves closer and closer to the mainstream whilst retaining that mumblecoric charm that's been instilled in her work since the beginning. Laggies only really makes a grave mistake when it starts ending up more like a romantic comedy than a film about the struggle to find and stick with an identity for oneself, and that gray area makes Shelton's film, as a whole, a bit rocky.
However, few films are willing to tackle these kind of complex emotions especially with the layeredness that Shelton has provided. We learn a lot from watching Knightley's very vivid and natural body language, especially in her facial expressions, and a lot that goes unsaid in this film can be easily revealed and discussed. The entire project, even with its more plotted elements and specific structure, feels natural and a winning step up from Shelton's mediocre Touchy Feely. In a world of sloppy romantic comedies and even more incredulous ones, I can't think of a reason not to see Laggies.
Starring: Kiera Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Sam Rockwell, Jeff Garlin, and Mark Webber. Directed by: Lynn Shelton.