Review: Laggies

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★

Movies like “Laggies” make me hopeful for the future of cinema. Here we have a brand new screenwriter and an emerging director. People like to point the lack of talented women working in Hollywood, and they make an excellent point. Hollywood seems to have a misplaced aversion to hiring women in creative roles. It can’t be because of the lack of talent though. There are plenty of talented filmmakers working in the independent scene just waiting for that big call. Case in point, Lynn Shelton’s “Laggies,” a small yet very well done indie comedy.

“Laggies” follows Megan (Keira Knightley), a young lady in her mid-to-late twenties who never quite grew out of high school. She lives with her photographer boyfriend Anthony (Mark Webber) who would like to see her get a job, but doesn’t really have to courage to force her into it. Megan is just content with spinning one of those wooden advertisement signs in front of her father Ed’s (Jeff Garlin) accounting firm. Even her best friend Allison (Ellie Kemper) is concerned about her attitude toward life. Everyone just thinks she needs to grow up.

One night, Anthony proposes to her unexpectedly. Megan doesn’t know how to handle it, so she wanders off into the night and meets Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz), a high school girl looking for booze with her friends. She finds that she enjoys hanging out with them more than her boring grown up friends. She sees an opening to get away from her life for a while by telling Anthony she’s going to a career building seminar out of town. But instead of going, she moves in with Annika and her single dad Craig (Sam Rockwell). She hopes that hanging out with Annika and her crazy friend Misty (Kaitlyn Dever) will help her figure out what she wants to do with her life. But she finds out she might actually have more in common with Craig than Annika and her friends. 

“Laggies” is both funny and a genuinely heartfelt film. It’s an accurate portrayal of today’s twenty-somethings who experience what can only be called a quarter-life crisis. I know, because I’m only a handful of years removed from being there myself. The difference between Megan and myself is I actively worked. Megan does nothing else other than watch TV at her parent’s house rather than looking for a job. Let’s be honest, I would rather be doing that but people have to work.

Director Shelton’s handling of the subject is spot on. She understands the unique dilemmas of both her lead characters and is able to portray them from an unbiased perspective. We are, in turn, able to empathize equally with both Megan and Annika despite their age difference. And maybe the age differences between them and the viewer, in some cases.

Shelton’s job is made much easier thanks to an incredibly polished script from Andrea Seigel. For her first script, Seigel chose what appears to be a pretty personal topic for herself. It’s as well crafted as some of the better scripts to come out this year. All the characters compliment one another, including those in the minor roles. There’s no extra fat to trim off of this screenplay. Everything flows seamlessly: each scene, each sequence and each act.

“Laggies” is a very enjoyable comedy, but it’s not without its own minor faults. It is a pretty straightforward story, and doesn’t leave the audience with much to ponder about. That isn’t always a bad thing, per se, but it probably won’t be one of those movies you think about a year or two down the road. But I think the one thing we can take away from “Laggies” is that Shelton and Seigel are very refined storytellers who have an unlimited amount of potential in them. Whether or not they work together again remains to be seen. But if “Laggies” is any indication on what they’re both individually capable of achieving, we’re in for some remarkable films from the two of them.