Laid Off
LAID OFF combines the stuck-in-a-rut characters of CLERKS with the laissez faire attitudes and humor of OFFICE SPACE. Director John Launchi shows us the adventures of two co-worker friends who are both laid off from their jobs and then decide to live off their ample severance packages for the Summer. Pulling off a film in general is quite a feat, but pulling off a genuinely funny indie comedy is something that doesn’t come around often. Launchi keeps the tone of the film light even when the characters are dealing with heavy issues, and he keeps the movie grounded in his characters and story, making his situations believable and engaging to the audience.
The first thing I want to address is the acting of his lead actors C.J. Moebius and Michael Ryan (who also happens to be the co-writer of the film). C.J. has the comedic timing and look of a young Ben Affleck (yes that IS a compliment), and Michael reminded me of a more front-man version of Will Friedle. Acting-wise the supporting cast was so-so but certainly not horrible. It is obvious though that the right decision was made when casting the two leads who had to carry the film though. The references and colloquialisms the two bantered about are spot on and were a lot more original than most referential dialogue spoken in most flicks (the jokes had me at a Doug cartoon reference complete with theme song rendition). The story between the two friends, and the subplots around them interweave nicely and everything gets resolved at the end satisfactorily.
The film looks pretty good despite its obvious low budget nature. I really enjoyed the use of varying locations rather than just relying on one location for the office and one for their home. IT was nice to see that the offices they used actually had some production value to them and didn’t just look like the same offices shot from different angles. They were distinctive and felt branded like real places. The cinematography overall is pretty standard, but not sloppy either. The editing is fairly consistent throughout with a few issues towards the end where a few seconds could have been shaved off a few reaction shots. The sound mix was also fairly well done. There weren’t too many times when the any ADR was noticeable, and the music used felt pretty well in tune with the tone of the movie. The only thing that took me out of the film occasionally was the ringers on the guy’s cell phones, which aren’t on any REAL phone in the entire world and seemed very repetitive over the course of the movie when the story relied on them using their phones.
LAID OFF was one of the funnier indie movies I’ve seen this year so far. The writing and direction of this movie is solid, and it is one of the few times where a smaller budget probably helped the film more than hurt it. Great characters, great plot, and great writing. What more could a reviewer as for?
