Pretty Problems, 2022.
Directed by Kestrin Pantera.
Starring Britt Rentschler, Michael Tennant, JJ Nolan, Graham Outerbridge, Charlotte Ubben, Alex Klein, Clayton Froning, Katarina Hughes, Vanessa Chester, and Amy Maghera.
SYNOPSIS:
Jack and Lindsay are invited on a getaway trip with affluent strangers: down the rabbit hole, and into the most unhinged weekend of their lives. Can their relationship survive?
Kestrin Pantera’s (Mother’s Little Helpers) new feature is the latest in a long line of indie dramedies about middle-class discontent and romantic ennui, delivering periodic amusement through its skilled cast though ultimately feeling less than the sum of its parts.
Married couple Jack (Michael Tennant, who also wrote the film) and Lindsay (Britt Rentschler) are totally fed up with their unremarkable life; Jack works as a door-to-door salesman after losing his job as a lawyer, and Lindsay slaves away in a clothing boutique with grand dreams of running her own. Their sex life is meanwhile a begrudging chore that needs to be scheduled around life’s responsibilities, but everything seemingly changes after Lindsay is befriended by an extremely wealthy woman, Kat (J.J. Nolan), at work.
Kat invites Lindsay and Jack to her lush Sonoma Valley pad for her birthday party, as kicks off a weekend of boozy luxury. While Jack is skeptical of Kat’s motivations and uncomfortable with the flagrant wealth on display, Lindsay buys into it, recognising an opportunity to elevate their own life by clinging onto Kat and her obscenely rich friends.
Pantera’s film is obviously centered around the class divide separating its central characters, of how this chasm of wealth creates distinct power dynamics and, by virtue of inevitable comparison, affects people’s self-worth. Jack and especially Lindsay can’t help but feel inadequate staying at Kat’s place, which is stocked with more wine than any human being could drink and a staff of hired help to cater to their every whim.
Pretty Problems does at least capture the profound weirdness of the filthy-rich, and also the primal insecurities they can bring out of “poor” folk. This is ripe for some decent bursts of cringe comedy, even if the plotting, characters, and overall humour too often veer into excessively broad, sitcom-y territory. Much as the film paints Kat, her husband, and her friends as obnoxious, pampered assholes, audiences may simply find them too grating to want to spend 105 minutes with.
Jack makes several jokes about the potentially sinister motives of their hosts, noting the possibility that they’re about to become victims of a Purge-style killing spree, yet it’s almost a shame Pantera’s film doesn’t teeter into horror movie territory. With the Sonoma retreat having no phone or Internet access per Kat’s missive of a “digital detox,” the stage is set, though it instead settles for being a pretty straight-forward satire of class and privilege without evolving much beyond it.
The biggest issue is the excessive runtime, with the many laboured setups and scenarios bloating it to far closer to two hours than necessary. At a tidy 80-or-so minutes this would’ve been much easier to stomach, but as it is, it’s exhausting being around most of these people for so long.
The cast, at least, does their damnedest to elevate the uneven material; Michael Tennant and Britt Rentschler have sharp chemistry as the strung-out focal married couple, and J.J. Nolan is a hoot as the interminably bored rich housewife who chugs wine simply to fill the time. Everyone commits to their parts and their enthusiasm can’t be faulted, even if the script’s limitations prevent it from striking a stronger emotional chord.
Filmmaking-wise this is pretty workmanlike stuff, but considering the picture’s clearly low budget hardly a deal-breaker. There are some rough spots of editing and an unrefined sound mix – dialogue often sounds weirdly muddy – but if you’re onboard with the film already they’re unlikely to bother you much.
There are certainly kernels of emotional truth here about how unhappiness pervades across pay brackets, but beyond effectively parodying a very specific brand of aloof California privilege, there’s very little here you haven’t seen executed better elsewhere.
Pretty Problems offers occasional laughs but too often indulges staid sitcom-style conventions while grossly outstaying its welcome.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more film rambling.
