Paramount Pictures
Very few films portray male friendship with the energy of Doug Liman’s 1996 breakout hit Swingers.
What is so rewarding about the film nearly thirty years after its release is how it honestly delves into male insecurity, pain, and loneliness without allowing it to erase the energy, creativity, and loyalty at the center of their friendship. The result is a group of men we can see ourselves into and feel for, without feeling sorry for.
Set during a very particular moment in the 90’s when swing, big band, and ska were en vogue, Swingers follows four friends who are out-of-work aspiring actors living in Los Angeles.
When Mike (Co-producer, Screenwriter and star Jon Favreau) is dumped by his girlfriend, his best friend Trent (Vince Vaughn, in the performance that crystallized his screen persona forever) tries to get him back on the horse.
After a wild trip to Vegas that Mike sabotages with his own insecurity, Trent and Mike’s other two close friends Rob (Ron Livingston) and Sue (Patrick Van Horn) try with increasing desperation to help him find some quick love.
When the impossibly beautiful Lorraine (Heather Graham) enters the picture, Mike sees a path forward.
Swingers is a film of a moment: that late 90’s indie film built on dialogue with characters who are just a little bit quicker and more grounded than we had been allowed to see in American film before.
In its way, the dialogue has the same kind of bracing effect that hearing the opening discussion in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs does: these guys exist in the world I live in.
Where Tarantino creates this feeling by transplanting popular culture into the shared understanding of pulp gangsters, Liman gets it here through the authentic rhythms of male friendships. It’s rare that any film has a pair of characters that feel like real friends and even more amazing that this picture has two such pairings. Listen to Ron Livingston and Jon Favreau playing golf terribly in gym clothes while hungover or Vince Vaughn calling Favreau “Baby” ten thousand times a second as he apologizes for not losing money at the casino and you feel the shared history and distinct reality of these characters with one another.
Vince Vaughn is the gasoline that makes this film Go. The trailers all lean hard on him cutting up in Vegas but it is his preternatural energy throughout the film that picks up the story whenever he’s in it. He’s seductive in this film in a very particular way: his wit, intelligence, and fundamental loyalty to his friend always draw you back to him even as his brash thoughtlessness drives you back away. His Trent is a wonderful creation– in a way he reminds me of Hannibal Lecter, of all things, in that you’re never quite capable of hating him completely even if you know, deep down, what he is.
Doug Liman shifted from kinetic, small scale, films in the 90’s with 2002’s The Bourne Identity until achieving his final form of polishing Tom Cruise thrillers. This film shows off all his great strengths and makes me think we lost a real filmmaker to all the special effects and bombast. With no budget, Liman was able to get fantastic images, fine performances, and absolute rock solid pacing. Very few comedies are filmed as strongly as Swingers is, comedy is usually about flat filmmaking to not distract from the actual jokes, but this almost has a Coenesque feel in how it delivers complex verbal comedy with strong visual fundamentals.
Swingers is a film of its time in its details, but resonates as long as there’s heartbreak or friendship. Check it out. Recommended.
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