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Review: Swingers (1996)
If Quentin Tarantino opted to remake Delbert Mann’s Marty (1955)and set it in California the result would be “Swingers,” a tale of a young aspiring actor (Jon Favreau, the film’s writer and co-producer) and his friends looking for love. Like Ernest Borgnine’s Oscar-winning title role, Mike (Favreau) is a large, likable lug of an everyman. Unlike Marty he doesn’t live at home with mom and hope to buy a butcher shop. Mike is still smarting over breaking up with a girlfriend in New York.
Mike’s chum Trent (reedy Vince Vaughn), a fellow wannabe actor tries to get his friend out of his dolor with a few hours in Sin City. The pair head to Vegas where Trent goes to work charming the ladies while Mike suffers humiliating losses at the tables. Mike’s money woes pale compared to his embarassment attempting to endear himself to a young woman (Katherine Kendall) who happens be a friend of Trent’s latest—albeit temporary—conquest: a comely cocktail waitress (Deena Martin).
Back in Los Angeles, Mike and Trent spend much of their time hanging out with their friends who are also struggling actors not exactly successful with the ladies. Though they are not exactly hurting for funds it would seem. Not a night seems to go by without them looking for, to use some of Trent’s words, “money party babies” (notable ladies) and hoping to get the digits (phone numbers). Though the guys usually wind up “shaqed” (openly rejected) by the ladies at places despite initially getting good vibes from them, which Mike finds out the hard way.
Perhaps that’s why there’s much time for them to wax about pop culture (Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese are obvious favorites given that a number of scenes pay homage to Mean Streets and Reservoir Dogs) and gather at the apartment of a guy named Sue (Patrick Van Horn) to play video hockey.
Swingers makes for a neat Tarantino inspired comedy. Could a Tarantino-inspired musical be that far off? It has a vibrant feel despite being filmed on a budget so limited that some scenes were shot without having obtained permits to do so. Well despite those gaffes and dialogue which often seems cribbed from Tarantino, who himself is notorious for doing so in his screenplays, Swingers is entertaining and has, of all things, a soundtrack with a few Dean Martin tunes. Unheard of for a film catering to today’s young? Yes. For while influenced by Tarantino, Swingers wants very much to be the new Rat Pack.
Robert Baum is Currently a Bryn Mawr, PA-based film afficanado and pop culture junkie.
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