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 Chuck and Buck
(2000)
Director:
Miguel Arteta
Stars: Mike White, Chris Weitz, Lupe Ontiveros
Release Company:
Artisan
MPAA Rating: R
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It saddens me to think that most of America flocks to the theaters to see the latest crapola that Hollywood dishes out, and misses movies like Chuck and Buck.
Not everyone will enjoy this quirky comedy, shot quickly on digital video. But it's a worthy film and certainly much more satisfying to film aficionados than the standard regurgitated blockbuster pabulum.
From the beginning, we sense that Chuck & Buck centers on an unusual character, possibly as bizarre as Norman Bates.
Reminiscent of Hitchcock's first shots of Norman's bedroom, the camera pans a room of toy planes, trains, and other assorted toys before showing us lollipop-sucking 27-year old Buck O'Brien (Mike White), who reminds me of a dressed-down Pee-wee Herman.
We hear horrible coughing in the adjoining room, which ceases when Buck, with a blank stare, addresses his now-dead mother.
We are now off to a bizarre trip through Buck's mind, somehow stuck back in adolescence when he and Charlie "Chuck" Sitter (Chris Weitz) were best buddies.
Buck is no psychotic killer, but he obviously has problems. The first overt clue occurs at his mother's funeral, where Buck grins and waves at Charlie like an 11-year-old. We soon witness Buck's chuckle-worthy ineptness at small talk as he remarks to Chuck "Your face is fatter" and soon asks "You wanna see my room?"
While there, it becomes apparent that Buck is uncomfortable with Charlie's fiancee, Carlyn (Beth Colt), around. He shows off his pictures of Chuck and Buck as young adolescent best buddies, and turns on the record player for an insipid teenybopper melody that has a chorus of "oodley oodley oodley oodley oodley oodley oodley fun fun fun!"
We are dealing with a man-child fixated in time and fixated on a relationship he once had with Charlie, who has now moved on to other things. Charlie is now an executive in the record business in Los Angeles.
We can sense that Charlie does care about his old friend, but he certainly doesn't want to deal with Buck�s problems. This proves unavoidable when Buck moves to L.A. to be with his old friend (reminiscent of Bill Murray's character in What About Bob? ).
It would be easy to write Chuck & Buck's script with cardboard figures, like "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave" skit from Saturday Night Live; however, screenwriter Mike White (who plays Buck) develops finely nuanced characters. He treads a fine line here with Buck, who can appear especially creepy when he's obsessively stalking Chuck or peeping through the bedroom window at Chuck and his fiancee making love.
Yet we also see the human side of Buck as the innocent-but-insecure man-child who is frightened to death of rejection.
Buck also gets enough crying scenes to warrant an Oscar nomination (if Chuck & Buck weren't classified as a comedy or such the type of art-house film that much of Hollywood ignores).
Mike White is brilliant in his first-ever major acting role. He did play a part on an episode of TV's Freaks and Geeks, which he supervised. White may get other offers to play a geeky character after his Chuck & Buck performance.
One scene-stealer is Lupe Ontiveros, who plays Beverly, a compassionate theater producer/director who agrees to produce Buck's handcrafted play for a one-time-only performance.
Buck's play, Hank and Frank, obviously parallels his relationship with Chuck and attempts to reveal its underlying meaning.
Beverly tells Buck that she sees his play as ". . .a homoerotic, misogynistic love story." Hilariously, Buck stares blankly at her analysis and finally states "It's a fairy tale."
Depending on your point of view, it is both.
Credit must also go to director Miguel Arteta, who showed much promise in Star Maps. There are many close shots of character faces (using digital video), capturing moments that Hollywood films often miss. There is a special intimacy that we gain with Buck in particular, but Arteta's camera also allows us to see subtle character changes with Chuck, his fiancee, and Beverly.
Chuck and Buck is not for everyone, but if you enjoy quirky movies that make you think, you might enjoy it. I'm hard-pressed to think of other movies that parallel Chuck and Buck. The closest I can come is Todd Solondz's Happiness, but Chuck and Buck develops the characters much more fully.
In a sense, much of Woody Allen's relationship movies touch on some similar themes, and Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy explores similar territory.
Like a course in Abnormal Psychology, Chuck and Buck invites you to revisit areas of your past and begin to relate to some very strange characters.Chuck and Buck may bring back memories for you, even some that are hidden. It's a place worth visiting; you just wouldn't want to live there.
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