The Fractured Mirror entry: Supporting Characters (2012)
about 2 years ago
– Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 08:31:13 PM
I've been fortunate to see a bunch of films that have pleasantly surprised me for this book/project. This is one of them. Really enjoyed it. Very slight but very fun.
Supporting Characters (2012) (FM)
Daniel Schechter’s charming if aimless 2012 show-biz comedy Supporting Characters suggests a mumblecore take on Albert Brooks’ Modern Romance in its wry depiction of two cutters who are consummate professionals in the editing room but clueless and overwhelmed in the ways of love.
Mumblecore staple Alex Karpovsky and Tarik Lowe, who co-wrote the screenplay with Schechter, have terrific chemistry as Nick and Darryl respectively, the aforementioned movie world professionals. They’re friends as well as professional partners working on an awful-looking fantasy movie for hilariously clueless director Adrian (Kevin Corrigan, delightful as always), who doesn’t seem to know what he wants but is certain that the editors aren’t giving it to him.
Supporting Characters has the low energy and low stakes endemic to Mumblecore. Will our heroes use their gifts to make a terrible-looking movie slightly better and continue to collaborate? Will Nick’s serious relationship survive his flirtation with Jamie (Arielle Kebbel), the sexy, pothead leading lady of the abysmal movie they’re editing? Finally, will Darryl make a success of his faltering relationship with Liana (Melonie Diaz) or will she reject not just his marriage proposal but their relationship as a whole?
Thankfully Supporting Characters also has unexpected and very welcome diversity in a rare black mumblecore leading man in the charismatic and likable Lowe and a genuinely funny and engaging screenplay that’s only moderately self-indulgent and navel-gazing.
Supporting Characters meanders nowhere in particular and doesn’t have much of an ending or a third act but at least it shuffles aimlessly in a thoroughly enjoyable fashion.