Delayed Reaction: Laggies

The Pitch: Watching Keira Knightley, Chloe Grace Moretz, and San Rockwell bounce off each other for 90 minutes would be fun.

An A24 dramedy that premiered at Sundance starring three actors I love. That's a formula for a movie I'm going to see. I could probably guess the plot of this movie based only on that description and get pretty close. Low budget. Coming of age story. Fractured relationship with a parent. Supporting roles played by comedic actors who aren't being funny. A story that feels a little thin. Laggies checks all those boxes and I liked it.

I would've seen this movie a lot earlier, except I kept mixing it up with Begin Again. Apparently, I'm trying to see everything with Chloe Grace Moretz. She picks good roles and I'm close enough to seeing everything that I might as well try. Keira Knightley is like a ten years older version of Moretz in that way. I pretty much always enjoy a movie if she's in it. Sam Rockwell too. That leads me to my chicken or the egg question. Did I like this movie because Knightley, Rockwell, and Moretz prop it up or is the fact that those three are all in the movie a sign that it's a good movie to begin with? 

I'm not sure it's possible to make this movie without some contrivance. Nothing that happens in the movie is all that likely. It's all built on coincidences and lucky breaks. Keep in mind, the plot isn't just set off by Knightley chancing upon Moretz and her friends, buying them booze, and getting invited to hang out with them. She has to accept the offer. She has to get the phone from Moretz. Moretz has to think to call Knightley when she gets in trouble at school. Knightley has to accept. She convinces Moretz to let her stay in the house. Rockwell also has to be convinced to let her stay. This movie fails my One Big Leap test a dozen different ways. 

Thankfully, the actors are all enjoyable enough that it doesn't matter. In addition to the big three, Kaitlyn Dever is fun as Moretz's "doesn't give a fuck" best friend. Jeff Garlin gets to be the lovable papa bear we're used to. It's kind of refreshing to see Ellie Kemper not be someone who is impossibly delightful.

There's so much contrivance to the story because there's simply too much story. All the stuff with Knightley's friends and fiance end up being needless complications. Of course she should drop these awful friends. Of course the finance isn't right for her. It's a shame they couldn't find a way to drop more of that so we could focus of her relationships with Moretz and Rockwell. I get that the only reason she's with the latter is because of the former. That kind of proves my point. There's too much plot to this. That said, I've seen the sitcom version of this movie. It's OK but gets tedious well before the end of the first season.

(Oh, and the show is called Two of a Kind)

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend