06/13/06 Lurking In Suburbia

Lurking In Suburbia (2006), directed by Mitchell Altieri

watched solo; DVD rental (Blockbuster) @ home

Lurking by myself in a college-town apartment, I decided to pick up some comedies at the local movie rental places to lighten the boring mood. By the looks of the DVD cover art in the store, this one was pegged more as a juvenile sex-comedy romp in the style of anything National Lampoon's puts out...but once submerged into the movie's storytelling, it's not at all what I expected. Sure, most of the teenage comedies these days deal with the looming graduation date, while they run around more worried about getting laid than passing their finals...and they aimlessly wonder about college or work with no real direction or sense of who they are, constantly searching for reason in an otherwise irrational world. Welcome to life kids. Well, those insecure neuroses never really leave a person, perhaps just gaining momentum as life becomes more complicated with each passing year. Not to be a downer, as I believe the movie was also trying to avoid. What happens here, is in a very "Ferris Bueller" approach to the main character Conrad (actor is the poor-man's Giovanni Ribisi), we see his personal narration of his own life...and the pitfalls of his partying excesses, disasters of romantic relationships, dysfunctional roommates and childhood friends, and finally buckling down to figure out a true "profession" on the cusp of his 30th birthday. In true college-party fashion, all of his closest friends throw him the ultimate shindig to christen his middle-aged adulthood...which leads to one hell of a night. Full of introspective commentary, realistic surroundings, flawed people, and funny anecdotes to the fears of growing up...I was pleasantly surprised by the film's bare-bones approach to this age-old (pardon the pun) quest. Not surprisingly, I myself am fast approaching that middle-aged milestone of inadequacy and crisis...so at times in the movie I could definitely relate. Using a cast of virtual unknowns, and with a writer/director who is obviously speaking from experience here...the feeling is achieved. It's not the most enlightening thing you will ever be exposed to, but it does portray in pretty realistic terms what it is like to be a middle-aged white man in suburban America who is holding onto his past glories, trying to never settle down and take life seriously. And if you see this, and are fast approaching 30...please take heed to the movie's advice column on things to never do at a party over that age. Don't be that guy.

3 out of 5 stars