Results (2015)
Cast: Guy Pearce, Cobie Smulders, Kevin Corrigan
Director: Andrew Bujalski
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy
Official Site: Here
Editor’s Note: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2015 Independent Film Festival Boston. For more information please visit iffboston.org or follow IFFBoston on Twitter.
There are multiple inserts in Results of Kevin Corrigan and Guy Pearce playing musical instruments. They are asides that are sprinkled throughout without any real purpose. The characters aimlessly goof around, Corrigan on the guitar and Pearce on the drums. Both have more than adequate equipment, Corrigan can even be seen to have multiple guitars from which to choose from, but neither has any real skill. There is no dedication or conviction to either of the musical interludes, they are just two characters mindlessly messing around with items that produce sound. It is purposeless and masturbatory, and so is Results.
There are so many crisscrossing and tangential storylines of varying consequence that it is chore just to keep track of which one you are currently riding.
At first glance, Results doesn’t appear to have too much going on. The cast is relatively small, the setting is concrete, and the dynamics seem well established. However, in setting the stage the story has the possibility of going in many directions, and for the most part, it unfortunately does. There are so many crisscrossing and tangential storylines of varying consequence that it is chore just to keep track of which one you are currently riding. Kat is depressed and wants more than being a trainer. Trevor has grandiose dreams of changing the way people think about fitness. Danny has a butt load of money. Trevor is hung up on Kat. Danny is depressed. Danny misses his ex-wife. Trevor is obsessed with a Russian kettlebell guru. And the list goes on. Results is less one cohesive film than a series of vignettes featuring the same cast of characters.
For the most part, the characters aren’t even that unique or well-developed. Cobie Smulders’ Kat is a mean-spirited and aggressively emotionally stunted trainer who uses fitness to escape her problems. Guy Pearce’s Trevor is a more driven and spiritually inclined version of Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading. Giovanni Ribisi’s Paul is just another skeazy backwoods lawyer. And Kevin Corrigan’s Danny is a sad sack stoner with newfound wealth. The character development is skin deep at best and all of them seem to possess a very similar undercurrent of missed expectations and depression. The lack of development leaves the audience ambivalent to the outcomes of every single character, at times pushing you to the point of hoping for the worst, just so something worthwhile might actually happen.
That isn’t to say that the actors don’t deliver. The entire cast is certainly onboard and seem to be aware of some greater cinematic strength that isn’t readily apparent. Perhaps writer-director Andrew Bujalski is better at explaining this in person than he is on the screen. Guy Pearce flirts with this line of annoyance and pity, like a perpetually happy dog unaware that his owners have abandoned him. Kevin Corrigan is wonderfully weird and imbues even the most simplistic of dialogue with a touch of darkness that is just left-of-center enough to be endearing. If Results accomplishes anything, it reminds you just how great Kevin Corrigan can be with even the slightest of material. He is the type of actor built for strange little side roles and this is the first time in recent memory that he has been given a fairly sizable space to stretch his acting legs. His scenes are consistently the most biting, funny, and depressingly real.
Kevin Corrigan is wonderfully weird and imbues even the most simplistic of dialogue with a touch of darkness…
But that’s the thing about Results, it has the potential to be so much better than it is. When it chooses to be, it has an acerbic wit and fantastic timing that make for some genuinely funny moments. Nonetheless, it is so distracted by its many ideas that it can’t really focus enough to carry a single one to completion. There are hints to a commentary on self-help culture, the entitlement of the rich, the unfairness of modern day society, the rapidly changing cultures of growing cities, and even a bit of the democratization of the idea of fitness. The script is in dire need of a good edit, to trim away the many extraneous pieces and devote itself to one guiding message. Ultimately, its lack of purpose or vision dooms it to irrelevance. Even the best moments drift into the obscurity of the forgotten.
In the end, Results’ eyes are just bigger than its stomach. It offers occasional glimpses at a darker, stranger, funnier, and occasionally surrealistic film, but gets trapped in the doldrums of the more simplistic and eventually devolves into full-on cliché. As the film nears its end, it has fallen apart into complete romantic-comedy mode in the most stigmatic way possible. Making it all the more disappointing are the frequently great performances, particularly from Kevin Corrigan, that are left littered about the film. Results has the desire to be something humorously contemplative and cutting. But, as it gets mired in a bevy of inconsequential storylines and incomplete thematic attempts, it sacrifices its audience’s interest and melts into a disconnected and neutered puddle.
Results has the desire to be something humorously contemplative and cutting. But, as it gets mired in a bevy of inconsequential storylines and incomplete thematic attempts, it sacrifices its audience’s interest and melts into a disconnected and neutered puddle.
