Lola Versus Blu-ray Review
Run, readers, run.
Reviewed by Casey Broadwater, September 12, 2012
I see what
Lola Versus is trying to do. It wants to be the sharp/hip/smart alternative to slick Hollywood rom-com dross. It wants to be a new
take on old school Woody Allen. It wants to be real and uncompromising and true to the fractured love lives of Generation Y. And it wants to be funny
in a flippant, post-modern way while still bleeding with
I know how you feel, girl sentiment. Unfortunately, it does none of these things
particularly well, and most of them very poorly. If I had to pin a comparison on
Lola Versus, I'd say it plays like an especially awful hour-and-a-
half-long episode of the HBO series
Girls, all New York boho frippery but with none of the insight or honesty about Millennial self-obsession.
The movie is the work of director Daryl Wein and his co-writer/partner, Zoe Lister Jones, who also plays the "kooky friend" role that's now a rom-com
staple. The real star is Greta Gerwig, the blonde erstwhile indie darling who got her start in Joe Swanberg's micro-budget mumblecore films and has
slowly been ingratiating herself into more mainstream fare, including Woody Allen's
To Rome with Love and the Russell Brand misfire
Arthur. She'll survive
Lola Versus—and I have no doubt she has many great roles ahead of her—but I doubt her turn in the film will
do her career any favors.
Gerwig plays Lola, a newly 29-year-old Manhattanite—and Ph.D. candidate in 19th century French literature—whose birthday horoscope portends that
Saturn will return to the place of her birth and turn her life upside down. (Will it? It will!) She informs us of this via voiceover narration in a dream
sequence that has her standing on a desolate beach littered as far as the eye can see with discarded vibrators and high heeled shoes. Oh the heady
symbolism! It doesn't take long for the film to strike hard against plausibility. When Lola wakes up, we realize that she lives with her boyfriend Luke
(
The Killing's Joel Kinnaman)—an artist who does "paintings of celebrity sex tapes"—in an improbably enormous loft in the West Village, the
sort of space twentysomethings can only afford in the movies.
After some celebratory birthday lovemaking, Luke reaches conspicuously under the sheets ("Are you masturbating?" Lola asks. "We just had sex!")
and produces a shiny diamond ring. Cue the wedding preparation montage, in which we witness the discovery of the perfect dress, meet Lola's parents
—played by Bill Pullman and Debra Winger, both underutilized—and wait patiently for something to go horribly awry. The moment comes when Lola
returns to the flat to find Luke red-eyed and nervous on the couch. It's all over. He calls off the destination nuptials in Chiapas, putting their travel-
booked guests in the lurch and irreparably breaking Lola's little heart. The bastard.
This is all before the opening credits, mind you. The rest of the film chronicles the romantic mishaps and existential misadventures in the following year
of Lola's life, leading up to her dreaded 30th birthday, which—as everyone knows—signals the utter end of youth. If she's not married and happy and
popping out kids by then, well, heaven help her, because who in their right mind would want an intelligent and attractive 30-year-old with a P.h.D?
Gross.
Lola spends much of the first half moping, comforted by her guy pal Henry (Hamish Linklater)—who uncomfortably happens to be Luke's best friend,
but clearly has feelings for Lola against his better judgement—and her zany single-lady BFF, Alice (the aforementioned Zoe Lister Jones), perhaps the
most obnoxious character I've seen on screen this year. Alice could be a rejected Diablo Cody creation. She's a failed actress who carries "weed spray"
in her purse—basically, THC-infused Binaca—and drops genitally-themed non-sequitur lines like "I need to go wash my vagina" and "find your spirit
animal and ride it 'til its dick falls off." In case you haven't gathered as much by now, the script tries very, very hard to be edgy and—in the process—
comes off as off-putting and false.
The film episodically follows Lola through the post-breakup motions, the anger and depression, the self-loathing and desperation, the binge-eating and
pot-smoking. First, she tempts an extremely reluctant Henry into her bed. (Is he gay, we're meant to wonder? No, he isn't. He does, however, play in
the most godawful Nick Cave-wannabe band imaginable.) Later, in a scene that's supposed to be awkward-funny but is only awkward-awkward, she
hooks up with a well-endowed rollerblader—Ebon Moss-Bachrach as "Nick the Dick"—who's
really into fresh-caught fish and Ani DiFranco.
Then, of course, she slips up and sleeps with Luke again when he inevitably comes crawling back. It's all very expected and meandering and not nearly
as clever as it thinks it is. We
are seeing a reversal here of the trope where the heartbroken
guy fecklessly sleeps around, but this too
feels forced.
As talented of an an actress as Greta Gerwig may be—and she's shown plenty of potential in some of her earlier films—
Lola Versus
disappointingly gives her precious little to do besides sulk and obsess and fake orgasms. If rom-com heroines are supposed to be relatable, what does
that say about how Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister Jones see their target female audience?
Lola Versus Blu-ray, Video Quality
Lola Versus is wedded to Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's true to source and free of compression problems, authoring issues,
and digital tinkering. Shot on Super 35, the film has a readily visible grain structure—which is sometimes patchy/chunky in darker scenes, but never to
the level of distraction—and the picture here is untouched by DNR or edge enhancement. You immediately get the sense that you're seeing the film as it
was meant to be seen. Considering
Lola Versus is a fairly low-budget rom-com, though, you shouldn't expect high definition eye candy. While
there's still an appreciable amount of detail where it counts—closeups, facial features, clothing textures, etc.—the spherical lensing yields an image that's
not
quite as sharp as most anamorphically-shot films. Also, the occasional thickness of the grain inherently softens what would otherwise be
crisp lines. Color is handled well here, however; the film's palette is a slightly pushed version of "realistic," with generally rich grading and good contrast.
Skin tones are balanced throughout, and black levels as deep as they need to be. No real concerns here.
Lola Versus Blu-ray, Audio Quality
Expect the usual rom-rom sound mix from
Lola Versus' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. At the core is the alternately snarky
and mopey dialogue, which is always cleanly recorded and easy to understand. Add to that a modicum of environmental ambience from the rear
channels—New York street sounds, windy ocean atmosphere, the spray from a showerhead, nightclub noise, etc. Then tie it all together with a zippy,
borderline too-cute score from Brooklyn-based "film and multimedia composers" Fall On Your Sword, who recently did the emotive music for
Another
Earth. For variety, throw in a couple of safe indie tunes and one cringe-worthy Ani DiFranco number. It's not going to test your home theater
system, but the mix is clear and robust enough for the genre. For those who might need or want them, the disc also includes French and Spanish 5.1
dubs and optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
