Chattanooga 2023 Review: SOUR PARTY Takes Viewers On a Hilarious Ride Through LA
Sour Party, the feature debut from co-writers/directors Amanda and Michael Drexton (billed as “The Drextons” in credits), isn’t particularly original in its narrative beats, a “one crazy day” story that takes us to various locations and introduces us to various characters in Los Angeles, but its telling is so specific that it feels special.
The film begins with Gwen (co-writer Samantha Westervelt) and James (Amanda Drexton) bemoaning the state of the world and their place in it. They’re women in their 30s who have no direction and are all too aware of the many crises facing the planet and country. But when Gwen’s older sister reminds her of the baby shower she’s supposed to attend, Gwen becomes determined to buy a gift from the registry.
The only problem is that the only thing on the registry that hasn’t been claimed is a $150 “Baby’s First Wellness Kit” that includes tarot cards, essential oils, a birth chart, and all the other things a newborn needs. What follows is a frantic dash across LA as Gwen and James attempt to get together the $150 by calling on friends and acquaintances who owe them money.
Their journey takes them to a friend’s Twin Peaks themed vintage store, an ex-flame’s backyard cult, the home of a filmmaker purposefully drawing in cockroaches so he can file a complaint, an intimate one-man apartment concert, and more. These scenes are hilarious and often toe the line between reality and fantasy, with some breaking into outright fantastical absurdist humor. Most of the friends they meet are relatively unknown actors, but the cult is run by Corey Feldman who is perfectly cast as an egotistical and quietly abusive guru.
These scenes go by quickly, allowing Sour Party to introduce a premise, play out several jokes, and move along without enough time for any of the setups to get stale. Helping that momentum along is a fantastic soundtrack of fuzzy garage rock, not too heavy punk, and energetic hip hop that would make it a must-buy if there was any hope of it ever being released.
But what really makes the movie so watchable is Gwen and James. They aren’t the “straight” characters to the ridiculous hilarity around them and before they take off on their quest for the film, they both get moments to shine. Gwen when she creates an online performance including colored smoke farts that she believes will revolutionize the online sex work industry, and James when we see her manifesting a marriage to Nicolas Cage at the shrine she has lovingly built.
The friends’ dynamic is very much another instance of, well, 2 Broke Girls that have been on our TV screens for more than a decade now on shows like that one and Broad City. As with Broad City, there’s a sense that these women have known each other for years, there’s a rapport between them that is inviting and makes going along on a wild ride with them seem like a good time, even if it's also going to be a stressful time.
Of course, the stresses of finding enough money to buy a gift, and the ticking clock of the baby shower do finally come to a head and force the film to hit some tried and true narrative beats. But none of it feels unearned or disingenuous. In fact it feels like a real reckoning with choices, habits, and perhaps even lifestyles that are likely familiar to viewers of the same age as the central characters.
Sour Party is a wonderful comedy that treads well-worn narrative territory with characters who are far too singular to be cliche and delivers laughs from start to finish. It might be made specifically for millennials, but its jokes and emotional center will land with any viewer.
