When Eric (Jason Sudeikis) learns his father (Don Johnson) has decided to sell their Hamptons summer home, a place he’s come to spend his summer weekends drinking and partying with his thirty-something friends, the only thing left to do is to throw one last major fiesta. But it can’t be just another beer swilling, bean dip served out of a toilet “White Trash Bash”. It’s got to be memorable. It’s got to be something none of them will ever forget. It’s got to be A Good Old Fashioned Orgy.
With absolutely no warning, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy landed a Labor Day weekend release, which is fitting enough considering the film’s titular orgy is set for the very same weekend. One would think that with a concept as lowbrow as a sex party we’re not really going to get much in the way of “new” laughs, but I was surprised by how fun and entertaining this flick was and how it tended to deviate from the norm just when you thought it would fall into cliched trappings.
At the film’s core you have a group of ten lifelong friends, most of which populate the upper-middle class and use Eric’s wild summer parties as a way out of their mundane, day-to-day jobs. It’s the one time these buttoned up friends can still play like children and step away from the real world they’ll be returning to on Monday.
One couple (Will Forte and Lucy Punch) is about to be married and has a kid, another (Martin Starr and Angela Sarafyan) is firmly committed and as for the rest of them (Sudeikis, Tyler Labine, Michelle Borth, Nick Kroll, Lake Bell and Lindsay Sloane), they’re single. Considering how long they’ve been friends and, obviously, the fact we’re talking about an orgy here, convincing the entire group to take part isn’t an easy task. But as the film plays on each of them finds a reason to get involved, or to be excluded as is the case with the newlyweds, a situation that has a funny turn later in the film as Punch and Forte fall into their roles easily and are consistently funny when they’re given an opportunity to be on screen.
Another standout is Tyler Labine, a 33-year-old actor whose number seems to have been called as of late with a small, but vital role in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (he’s the guy that sneezed on the pilot), a co-starring role in the very funny upcoming horror-comedy Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and a role here as Eric’s schlubby sidekick. It’s easy to refer to him as “the new Jack Black”, but as long as he doesn’t sign on for films like Envy and Gulliver’s Travels it’s a moniker he should run with. I wouldn’t mind seeing him in a few more films.
The film was written and directed by “Late Show with David Letterman” writers Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, and serves as their directorial debut, which is sort of obvious. The direction is a bit hit and miss and the editing is frequently awry, with narrative problems that tend to happen when they’re trying to get across story details they couldn’t figure out how to fit in elsewhere. They have a small problem with getting from point-A to point-B, but I’m a bit torn as to whether I would prefer a more flowing storyline or if a film like this can manage with some choppy editing if that’s what’s necessary to keep the story moving.
At just over 90 minutes, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy wastes very little time and the writing is also quite funny and bucks the norm. While the narrative writes itself into traps typical rom-coms use to set up misunderstandings so the third act can bring everyone back together, this film doesn’t go the same route. This time, when words are said amongst friends they hash it out as friends would, rather than have one of them piss off for a few weeks, making way for a melancholy indie rock montage and sad stares off into the distance through rain-soaked windows.
Looking at this film with all the facts in place the narrative hardly rings true, but considering the story doesn’t make cheap emotional grabs at the audience it feels more legit than it probably ought to, which helps ratchet up the comedy. I believed these people were friends, there aren’t any major falling outs that need to be reconciled and the goal of the entire film is to have fun and a little consensual sex along the way. As a piece of comedic entertainment I can get behind that.
I’m not sure what kind of impact this film will have on the box-office upon its initial theatrical release, but I have a feeling ten years from now this will be one of those little-seen comedies people bring up in conversation and tell others they simply must see it. Of course, as time wears on you tend to exaggerate about the greatness of some films, as will be the case here, but every time I think about Labine wearing “The Yank” he purchased from Adam and Even online or the confrontation at the wedding it makes me laugh a little. A Good Old Fashioned Orgy is a comedy worth your time, it gets a little raunchy, but manages to find a little bit of sweetness in-between punchlines.
