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A career favouring a certain type of character has paid off for Jason Schwartzman, the acerbic, awkward yet assured misfits seen in the likes of Listen Up Philip, TV’s Bored to Death, and the films of Wes Anderson often endearing even when they shouldn’t be. In his hands, sly charm can go a long way, particularly when combining a state of arrested development with an attitude of misanthropy. Add a loafer ethos to the mix, and his latest guise certainly fits. Indeed, 7 Chinese Brothers proves an ideal match for his usual on-screen persona; in fact, the feature appears tailor-made to showcase its lead, garner a few laughs, and coast by doing little else.
Here, Schwartzman plays Larry with a wry smile plastered over his faux don’t-give-a-damn attitude, and with yearning and emptiness fighting for supremacy inside. Fired from his restaurant job when his apathy overtakes his work ethic, he wrangles his way into a position at a quick oil change establishment, astonishing even himself when he discovers he likes his new role quite fine. Of course, his obvious attraction to his kindly manager, Lupe (Eleanore Pienta, Stinking Heaven), certainly helps. Alas, she’s more interested in his aged-care-worker best pal Major Norwood (Tunde Adebimpe, Nasty Baby) – as is his grandmother (Olympia Dukakis, TV’s Sex & Violence), his only surviving relative and frequent source of funds.
7 Chinese Brothers is content to follow Larry’s seemingly endless stream of comic mishaps around Austin, Texas, the majority stemming from his own actions, and punctuated with chats with his pet pooch. Pairing a meandering tale with a wandering camera, the film revels in simply spending time with its bumbling protagonist, with little narrative flesh afforded his routine existence. Cue a series of skit-like scenes designed to demonstrate the character’s downbeat life, but doing little to add depth to a standard overall scenario. Basking in Larry’s ineptness leads to a number of offbeat, increasingly absurd encounters, including with former colleagues trying to wreak revenge, and with a driver who objects to his roadside manner; however all that’s cultivated is a comedic portrait of slacker quirkiness, albeit an easy, breezy and affable one.
Accordingly, writer/director Bob Byington (Somebody Up There Likes Me) uses his star as the film’s skeleton as well as a form of adhesive – hanging his story from Schwartzman’s typical traits, and asking him to help the sometimes-disjointed scenes stick together. It’s a task the actor is more than up to, even if his efforts – and his engaging banter – can never quite shake the feature’s pervading air of pleasant triviality. Larry might come across as a standard Schwartzman creation caught in a whisper-thin plotline, but the wealth of his experience in such a role imparts texture otherwise absent. Both the character and the man behind him are ably helped by Adebimpe’s deadpan turn and Dukakis’ brief, spirited appearance, as well as by the sleepily scene-stealing xArrow Schwartzman, the thespian’s own bulldog.
That Byington stiches Schwartzman-as-Larry’s low-key adventures together with lightness to accompany the slightness – through visuals devoid of a harsh glare, and with a melodic soundtrack – is far from surprising given the effort’s main thematic concern: a lack of ambition. 7 Chinese Brothers can’t quite by accused of the same, but it can be said to amble along in an amusing bubble of Schwartzman’s charisma.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
7 Chinese Brothers
Director: Bob Byington
USA, 2015, 76 mins
Melbourne International Film Festival
July 30 – August 16
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