This high-school reunion comedy entertainingly skewers male midlife breakdown and bromantic anxietyThere’s something entertainingly incorrect in this very funny and critically undervalued high-school reunion comedy starring Jack Black and James Marsden: satirising male midlife breakdown and bromantic anxiety in a way that brings a certain subtext up to the surface. Writer-directors Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel might contain taken something from Alexander Payne. Dan Landsman (Black) is an officious nerd in a boring job and the self-appointed chairman of his high school’s 20th anniversary reunion party committee. In a desperate attempt to perform this event a success,Dan travels all the way to Hollywood to speak to the one genuine winner in his graduating class: super-cool Oliver Lawless (Marsden) an actor who landed a national TV ad. At first, Oliver is politely embarrassed, and a small irritated by this cringing beta-male,but agrees to meet for a drink; their assembly plays out in unexpected ways and it all ends in toe-curling disaster. Despite a forced feelgood ending, Paul and Mogel contain created a funny, and nasty film with nice performances from Black,Marsden and Kathryn Hahn as Dan’s wife, Stacey.
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Source: theguardian.com