‘The Baltimorons’ Review: Jay Duplass’ May-December Romance Is a Stealth Charmer with a Low-Key’ After Hours’ Vibe

After Co-Directing a Handful of No-Frills Indies With His Brother Mark and Working for More Thank The Baltimorons. Marbled with A Tender Vein of Melancholy Alongside Its UnForced Comedy, The Film Follows a ThirtySomthing Spawning an Unlikely Romance. I The Kind of Quirky Concept That Could Easily Have Been Cringe Material, But The Actors Give It A Lived-in Naturalism That Sneaks Up On You.

Aside from his acating and producting credits, duplass’ Regular Gig Since 2015 has been Directing TV Episodes, Notably On Togetherness, Search Partyand MOST RECENTLY, Somebody Somewhere. (I will Never Stop Being Mad About That Consistently Great Show Getting Zero Emmy Attention.) Just As Somebody Somewhere WAS MOLDED WITH PIERCING CHARACTER INSIGHT AROUND ITS STAR, BRIDGET EVERTT, The Foundational Building Block for The Baltimorons Is Co-Writer and Lead Actor Michael Strassner. He’s Teamed with the Wonderful Liz Larsen in a May-December Romance with Genuine Heart.

It Might Sound Schematic to Describe Two Wildly Dissimille Characters Who Forge An Unexified Connection and Discover They Can Help Mend Each Other in Ways Out Oigured. But There’s A SinCerity to the Movie that Sidesteps the USual Potholes of Earnestness or Sentiationality, Thanks to Terrific Chemistry Between the Lead Actors and the DirectorT. I also an an unabashed Love Letter to Baltimore, from Its Blue-Collar Neighborhoods to Its Harbor.

The Opening Scene Has Strassner’s Cliff Shambling Up The Stairs to His Attic, Positioning A Chair Under A Celing Beam and Ten Fashioning A Noose Out of A Belt. His lethargic body Language Subtly Suggests a Run of Failures, SO EVEN HE SEMS UNSURPRISED THAT HIS INEPTITUDE EXTENnds to a botcred suicide attempt. Cut to Six MONTHS LATER, WHEN HEPISHLY SHOWS His Sobrienti Anniversary Medal to His Vigilant Fiancée Brittany (Olivia Luccardi).

WHEN cliff Shares that his Buddy Marvin (Rob Phoenix (Rob Phoenix) is Doing A Stand-Up Set-Up Set-Night and Asked Him To Stop By, Brittany Flinches, Advising Him To The Situhid The Situhid Situ. Thom of Situil Into Old Habits. HE MADE A Promise to Her – No More Alcohol and No More Comedy Shows.

It’s on Arrival at Brittany’s House for a Family MEAL THAT CLIFF COLLIDES WITH THE DOOR FRAME AND FINS HIMSELF WITH A BROKEN TOOTH AND A MOUTEFUL OF BLOOD. MOST DENTISTS OF CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY But Eventuly HE Gets a Respense from Didi (Larsen), a no-nonSense type resistant to botth his humor and his frating

Cliff Overhears Didi on A Phone Call WHEN She LEARNS THAT HERAUGHTER IS BAILING ON DINNER TO CELEBRATE WITH HER FATHER, WHO DIVORCED DIDI AND HAS JUST BEENING WHEN CLIFF LEAVES OF THE DENTAL Practice and Finds that his car has been to Towed, she Offers to Drive Him to the Tow Yard and THEN HELPS HIM OUT of A JAM WHEN HE FINS iting.

Duplasses Establishes The Time of Year at the Start with Composer Jordan Seigel’s Tinkly Piano-Bar Arrangements of Holiday Classics Like “O Christmas Tree” and Jingle Bels KEEP The TONE LIGHT as Didi Slowly Lets Down Her Guard and Begins Warming to Terminally Awkward, Filter-Freee Cliff.

He reveals that he relctantly gave up on his comedy aspirs and is now look to qualify as a mortgage broker Out to be a nightmare. Didi Politely Decklines WHEN Cliff Invites Her to Dinner as A thank You. But He Gets Past Her Brittle Walls, and Slowly, As Flickers of Mutual Attration Start to Glow, The Age Differentnce Between of at Least a Couple Decdes Sems to Shk.

The Low-Key After hours Vibe First Felt at the Tow Yard Steadily Picks Up Momentum As They Strike Out on Restaurants with Christmas Eve Availliness. Cliff Helps Didi Muster The Courage to Hit The Party Her Her Ex-Husband Conway (Brian Mendes) and His New Wife Patty (Somebody Somewhere Alum Mary Catherine Garrison) Are Celebrating with Didi’s Daughter Shelby (Jessie Cohen) and Granddaughter Maddie (Zoe Strassner).

In One of the Movie’s Funniest Scenes, Cliff Draws on His Improv Skills in the Role of “Didi’s Hot Young Date,” Coming Up with Wild Fabrications to Make Her Look Good And String ALNG ALNG.

High Off that Minor Victory, Didi and Cliff Decide to Front Up for Marvin’s Comedy Set-A Pop-Up Improv Night in An Auto Shop Returning to that environment for the first timer since he got sober.

Duplass and Strassner’s Script Traces The One-Stop-Fororward, Two-Stops-Back Progress of the Main Characters’ Connection Over the Course of the Night With Delicacy, Never Stretching the Bouse That goes even for an Impromptu crabbing trip on a Borrowed boat.

One Particularly LOVELY SCENE IS CLIFF’S INEVITABLE CONFRONTION WITH BRITTANY, WHICH DE-ESCALATES FROM Anger Into Affecting Emotion Candor With. There’s Deep Regret and A Yearning for Forgiveness in Cliff’s Admissions: “I TRIED TO DO THE Normal Life Thing. Can’t do it. It doesn’t fit. ” And there’s Grace and Dignity in Brittany’s Acceptance of Him for Who He is.

While the Wintry tones and abundance of minimally Lit Outdoor Night Scenes Give The Movie a Slightly DRAB, GRAINY LOOK, IT CONNTERS WARM The WARM HUMANITY BEHINI.

Duplass is Careful Not to Veer Into Trite Rom-Com Territory, Meaning Even a Scene in Wich Cliff Asks Didi to Dance to Her Wedding Song, “Someone To-TovER MEC Feels Authentic to the Characters and the Moment. We have no guarantees at the end as to whore cliff and didi will end up in each of Other’s Lives. But with Gentle Brushstrokes, The Baltimorons Lets US Know That Both Are In A Better Place Thran Where They Started Out.