Directed by Will Bakke, The Get Together is a comedy about a friday night party from the perspective of four individuals; a young college graduate struggling to find a ‘real job’ so is consequently an Uber driver, her slacker passenger with a band that is falling apart, his long lost love who moved away to the big city and her new boyfriend, who struggles to find the perfect way to propose. The film is divided into three parts, one for each perspective. Each person or ‘perspective’ has their own short story to tell that intertwines with the others at the party, as well as with each other.
August’s up first. Played very well by the incredible Courtney Parchman, she’s seen as ‘the loner’, the one who doesn’t go out much and with no friends except her college roommate McCall (Luxy Banner). I find Parchman’s acting very believable but I have an issue with her character. Whether or not this was intentional, it seemed awfully cliché how August, who happens to be a bigger girl, is friends with the ‘skinny party girl’ and is left on the outside looking in. The one that people secretly laugh at just because she doesn’t fit. Why cast someone who looks like Parchman to play August. She’s a great actor but why this particular role? She could easily have played McCall. Why make August that type of friend who’s obsessed with her best friend and jealous of the fact that she has other friends. Everyone around Courtney is shown to be perfect, with their perfect bodies, perfect clothes and perfect friends. It frustrates me that this seems to be an ongoing issue when it shouldn’t be. Nonetheless, August is a fighter with attitude and sass. She knows what she believes in and she doesn’t like being taken for a fool.
Next we have Betsy and Damien (played by Johanna Braddy and Glee’s Jacob Artist) – the new couple on the verge of a great life. In town for a proposal Betsy doesn’t yet know about, Betsy is thrust into the party with old friends she hasn’t seen in two years, whilst Damien struggles internally (as well as externally when things go pear shaped), about how to propose to Betsy, with additional pressure from Betsy’s father Rick (a small cameo from the great Bill Wise).
And then lastly we have Caleb (played by Alejandro Rose-Garcia). August’s Uber passenger, who isn’t really going anywhere in life except rock bottom with his so called band. Everyone in his life is either having a baby, buying a house or actually growing up and he’s just there trying to still hold on to the one thing that gives him some joy in life, the band he’s been in for years.
The script is a bit messy with some scenes and dialogue unnecessary, as if it was thrown in at the last minute without much care or consideration. Little is more than enough sometimes. The acting isn’t great either, except for Artist, Parchman and Rose-Garcia – the rest either bored me or annoyed me, which included the supporting role of Lucas (played by Chad Werner). The only comfort I got from him was towards the end when you see his friendship with Damien start to bloom. Otherwise, he was over the top, dramatic and just bloody annoying. The same goes for Banner as McCall. Whether or not it was the actor or the character, one of them annoyed me and it was hard to tell which. The concept however is very interesting and I always find watching films with different points of views and perspectives fascinating.
It definitely has potential, if only there had been a bit more time in its development. A detail I picked up on that I particularly liked was the vibrancy of the bright neon lights that contrasted with the darkness of the evening sky. It made everything very vivid and really pop with colour. The film as a whole was somewhat of a slow burner with elements of comedy, warmth, weirdness and chaos thrown into the mix – a rainbow, but a rather colourless one I’m afraid.
Find out more here: https://bit.ly/TheGetTogetherMovie
