A movie entitled Like Crazy came out to wonderful reviews and accolades recently. The bittersweet film about two pretentious twenty-something kids in a long distance relationship seems to be adored by many and is even receiving Oscar buzz in every major category this year. Personally, I found this movie overrated and became progressively more irritated by it as time passed. I could spend hours discussing the flaws and my dislikes of Like Crazy but that would be a giant waste of your time and mine. Instead I will use this time to encourage everyone to check out the director Drake Doremus' first movie entitled Spooner.
Spooner can be best described as a "boy meets girl" story. The lead character Herman Spooner (played by my homeboy Mathew Lillard) is a thirty year old man who is nice but socially awkward. Spooner works a horrible job and is on the verge of being kicked out of his parents' house when he meets the girl of his dreams named Rose (played by the adorable Nora Zehetner). At this point, if I explained the plot of the film any more, it would be doing a huge disservice to this simple and charming story.
The supporting cast (including the great Christopher MacDonald) is fantastic but it is Mathew Lillard who carries this film with great ease and likeability. His part in Spooner would have been mishandled and overacted by many actors but Lillard plays it effortlessly. Coming a long way from the Scream and Scooby Doo franchises, Lillard shows a lot of growth and promise as an actor in this movie (promise that he later lived up to with a recent supporting role in George Clooney's The Descendants).
Spooner may have been a small movie in budget and simple in story but certainly played to it's strengths. A likeable script coupled with charming actors and a pleasant soundtrack made this a cinematic experience worth seeking out. Unlike some movies, Spooner does everything it sets out to do: It entertains.
Some would say that I was "like crazy" over this movie (that was a pun)....
