The Baxter
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Movie Reviews of The Baxter
Movie Review: A sweet, idiosyncratic romantic comedy.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Baxter is about a nice guy named Elliot Sherman (Showalter). He's the kind of guy who doesn't get the girl in the movies. He reads the Dictionary for fun and is an accountant by trade (working for the second best firm in New York City no less) - it doesn't get much more ordinary than that. He is a naïve, idealistic dreamer in the same vein as Miranda July's character in Me and You and Everyone We Know. The Baxter champions nice guys and the unsung heroes who may not be dynamic leading man material but fascinating in their own right.
Michael Showalter is excellent as the ultimate nice guy/doormat. He walks through life with a perpetually cheery, glazed facial expression that is priceless. With his pursed lips and oblivious nature, he's like a live-action version of Charlie Brown. He has such an expressive face - ideal for all of his funny looks and reaction shots when something doesn't go his way: wide eyes when surprised and narrowed when suspicious.
The always watchable Michelle Williams is absolutely endearing as Cecil the temp. Even though she is made to look mousy, her natural beauty and charisma come through. Her character is infinitely more interesting than Caroline and this is due in large part to Williams. There is something about her, an old fashioned quality in what her character wears, her inhibitions and her naivete that is refreshing in this day and age with actresses like Angelina Jolie who reveal too much so that there is no mystique to them. This makes them less interesting to watch.
Five minutes into The Baxter and it already has you immersed in this fascinating and idiosyncratic world. You find yourself already caring about what happens to Elliot. He is instantly endearing and engaging. And this extends to other characters via extensive use of close-ups so that we can see them emoting - essential for a character-driven movie like this one. In the first five minutes it is readily apparent that is a wonderfully personal, independent movie.
There is a brief "Blooper Reel" that features four scenes where actors blow their lines. It's amusing but hardly earth shattering. Where is the audio commentary or obligatory making of featurette?
Movie Review: An intellectually nuanced must-see!
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay, first of all, all the other reviews here keep referring to the cast of "Stella" which I've never seen (and maybe that's why the main character of this movie was so fresh for me), but nobody seemed to pick up on the fact that almost the ENTIRE cast of MTV's sketch comedy show The State shows up somewhere in this movie (really, the only notable exceptions being Beth Littleford and that other little guy that played Beth Littleford's ex-husband/host of Viva Variety). I loved The State, but I knew they could never support such zany off-the-wall premises for a full-length picture. So I was expecting a much more "mundane" plot. I was pleasantly surprised to see that within a very "everyday" analysis of romance, Michael Showalter crammed a lot of very insightful, biting, sometimes almost personally painful, but also very funny comedy. This is a movie that requires intellect and a simple appreciation of quiet artistic style to properly enjoy. I'm guessing the guy that wrote the review that said he left the theater after 15 minutes doesn't fit the bill. I actually enjoyed this movie as much or more the second time I watched it, and I am planning to buy a copy. This movie is what smart film-lovers wish films could be all the time. Michelle Williams is perfect as the girl who may not look as good from across the bar as her female counterpart, but turns out to be the kind of girl that more complex guys can't live without once they meet her. (I am silently biting my fist right now.) Kudos as well to the rest of the cast of The State who show that they can seamlessly slip right out of their zany slapstick roles and into these quiet expertly-delivered supporting comedic roles. I kept wondering if the "I Wanna Dip My Balls In It!"-guy from The State was going to show up, and he DID in the last 30 seconds of the film! Michael Showalter, I started loving your work as Doug, the eloquent, generation-X loser ("So Dad, you think smoking a cigarette with me is all it takes to fix the generation gap 'twixt you and me? This scene is beat, says I...I'm outta heeeeeeeeyyyyaaa!", etc.), but I'm still loving it because of this film!Movie Review: An absolutely delightful sort of aside in the whole romantic comedy industry
Summary: 5 Stars
The Baxter
This is probably one of the most underrated films I've seen yet, considering that it's style is basically generic romantic comedy (meaning the makers underrated it themselves), it's gotten little to no viewership... I never even heard of it before I picked it up off the wall (it was next in line).
Anyway, you know all those movies about how the man and the woman love each other but can't figure it out, so the woman almost marries the wrong person before the man crashes the wedding and sweeps her away? Well this is the story of the guy left at the altar, and his search for the "right woman" as well when his character is defined as the safe, content "nice guy" that women are supposed to erroneously try to marry when their lively romantic relationships go awry. Basically that's the long way of saying that this guy is an accountant who spends his time reading the dictionary as a private pleasure, and now he realizes that he'd like to actually get the girl too.
What's absolutely wonderful about this film is that Elliot knows that his problem is that he's such a harmless nice guy, but he knows that being a harmless nice guy is a really great thing to be if you don't take into account that that means losing a lot of relationships because women are more interested in romance risk-takers. So he has to battle his own personality with his own personality while his friends give him TERRIBLE advice that sounds good (we've been there, now haven't we?), he surrounds himself with completely superficial people because superficiality is the only way he knows to fit in, and he totally doesn't notice the direct and not-so-subtle advances from the "right girl" who is, also, way too nice to take risks as well.
In short, it's an absolutely delightful sort of aside in the whole romantic comedy industry, but still uses a lot of the tropes and techniques usual to the form to keep it simple and enjoyable for everyone.
--PolarisDiB
Movie Review: Sweet Debut from Showalter
Summary: 5 Stars
Michael Showalter's feature film directorial debut will probably come as somewhat of a surprise to longtime fans of "The State," "Stella," and "Wet Hot American Summer." While some of the absurdity associated with those projects is in place in "The Baxter," for the most part, this is a sweet comedy in the vein of 70s/80s Woody Allen territory.
Showalter plays Elliot Sherman, "the baxter," a term used for the nice guy that always seems to lose the girl to the more passionate "bad" boy who pops up in romantic comedies. Quite an original idea for a movie, many of the same cast members from "Wet Hot American Summer" (Michael Ian Black, Zak Orth, Elizabeth Banks, Joe LoTroglio, AD Miles) pop up in small supporting roles. David Wain is also here doing his thing -- which lends itself to one of the funniest scenes in the film. The great thing about "The Baxter" is that the absurd comedy aspects of the film never infringe on the sweet and serious nature of the story. It's a fine balance of the two.
The only complaints about the DVD is there are basically no special features aside from four brief "blooper" clips. It would've been nice to have an audio commentary by Showalter, and maybe either a short "making of" or some deleted scenes -- but, that's not here. However, the movie is worth owning and gets better with repated viewings.
Movie Review: That Rare Example Where "Romantic Comedy" Is Not An Egregious Misnomer
Summary: 5 Stars
The Baxter represents a substantial departure from the absurdist fare of The State and Wet Hot American Summer, but it works so well that fans of these past related works may stop demanding that it conform to those old standards of loopiness. Panned by nearly all movie critics, The Baxter was a film it seemed no one was willing to take on its own terms. It's both a tribute to and sly parody of the old screwball comedy form, which found its apogee in Billy Wilder's The Apartment (Collector's Edition), and to which The Baxter throws at least a few nods. Writer and director Michael Showalter as Elliot Sherman is innocent and awkward but also brimming with a subversive lunacy just beneath his mannered exterior. No performance is wasted in the film, with Justin Theroux's cornball leading-man charm, Michelle Williams's swoon-inducing quiet cool, Elizabeth Banks's perfectly balanced urbane affectations. And then there's Paul Rudd, who steals one of the better scenes of the film (it involves an inexplicable social game, and is probably one of the ten funniest things I've ever seen). What I really like about this movie is that Showalter knows how to indulge our schlockier sentiments without forgoing wit and maturity.