The Baxter (2005)

This film is about a man who is unlucky in love due to his rigid ways. He learns to break his bad luck by breaking his behavioural pattern."The Baxter" is actually an interesting look at this accountant who is rather unlucky with ladies. His character is interesting, as he is not particularly likable, but he radiates a mischievous charm. "The Baxter" is an unconventional romantic comedy, it is a little dark but it is quite funny at the same time. I particularly found the argument in flat scene and the date in hamburger joint scene funny.For some unknown reason, I find "The Baxter" having an ability to stretch time. I thought I have watched at least an hour when in fact I watched only 30 minutes. Maybe it's the dialog heavy script, or the lack of spacing scenes, or the lack of lighthearted bubbly scenes to sooth the atmosphere. I am not saying it is boring or bad, because it is not.

Showalter does Stella all over again. If you don't know what Stella is, then you needn't concern yourself with this film. It's wasted on you. If you DO love Stella, then this is EXACTLY what you're hoping it is: awkward, wasp-ish and and well... awkward.If the idea of middle-class losers is inherently funny, then The Baxter will be a laugh extravaganza riot with pyrotechnics and flaming strippers. If you have discerning tastes about storytelling, humor, acting or plot, then this "film" will make you wish you had opted for an evening of anything mediocre on CBS instead.Interestingly Showalter gets Michelle Williams, Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks to completely waste themselves in this drudgery of white-collar ...well... how often can the word awkward be used in a review? But it's the only thing that applies to the entire ouvre of Showalter's career.Awkward and nebbish account manager Showalter woos Banks and for no reason whatsoever wins her heart, though she's obviously wrong for him as HE (get this!) has too much class for her. So he refuses to see the love in front of him that is in fact the (here it comes again) awkward dork played (rather well, thank you, since she's actually a capable actress) by Michelle Williams.One saving grace of the film is a bit of underwear clad Williams. If SKIN is the best this film has to offer, you might think twice, knowhumsayn? So, let's say obvious, strained, predictable and pointless. Thank you Showtime for rerunning this every 48 hours until I finally watched it in the (vain) hope that you'd eventually STOP! And yes. I know. I'm just TOO uncool to grasp the subtle comic genius of Michael Ian Black in a Speedo. Right. Look. He's funny as hell on VH-1. He has no business doing improv, let alone sketch comedy-cum-feature film experiment.If not for the fact that Showalter is a good drinking buddy to ACTUALLY talented people such as Rudd et.al., this film would never have even been picked up on bargain-bin for Showtime. Let's hope Showalter gets a gig writing for Conan O'Brien or someone so that he can be diluted in future by writers of actual vision, capability and perhaps talent.Ugh.

I did not know what to expect from this movie. Knowing it was written by Mike Showalter and featuring members of Stella/The State, I thought it would be a brash, albeit hysterical, examination of failed relationships. Brash it was not (no sign of dick-fish, here), but I was pleasantly surprised, and it is pretty funny. The story is great, very well-written. The humor is subtle; the movie is more funny in how people react to statements people say, or the way that Mike Showalter says certain things ("I had a dream that Bradley was at the bar!") and how terribly geeky he is ("Let me just put my driving cap on."). Peter Dinklage as the wedding coordinator is very funny. I haven't seen many of his movies, aside from the Station Agent, and it's nice to see him in a non-dramatic role. He gets lost in Brooklyn and freaks out slightly. Ohh, people from Manhattan are amusing. Justin Theroux, David Wain, and Paul Rudd are all wonderful as usual.I should also mention that Tim Orr did the cinematography, and his art direction is usually fantastic (e.g., All The Real Girls).I wish I'd known about this movie before hand. I would have seen it in the theatre. I really enjoyed it. It's tender and subtle, and pretty funny. I look forward to seeing more of Showalter's movies, which I hope he continues to make.

The Baxter This is probably one of the most underrated films I've seen yet, considering that it's style is basically generic romantic comedy (meaning the makers underrated it themselves), it's gotten little to no viewership... I never even heard of it before I picked it up off the wall (it was next in line).Anyway, you know all those movies about how the man and the woman love each other but can't figure it out, so the woman almost marries the wrong person before the man crashes the wedding and sweeps her away? Well this is the story of the guy left at the altar, and his search for the "right woman" as well when his character is defined as the safe, content "nice guy" that women are supposed to erroneously try to marry when their lively romantic relationships go awry. Basically that's the long way of saying that this guy is an accountant who spends his time reading the dictionary as a private pleasure, and now he realizes that he'd like to actually get the girl too.What's absolutely wonderful about this film is that Elliot knows that his problem is that he's such a harmless nice guy, but he knows that being a harmless nice guy is a really great thing to be if you don't take into account that that means losing a lot of relationships because women are more interested in romance risk-takers. So he has to battle his own personality with his own personality while his friends give him TERRIBLE advice that sounds good (we've been there, now haven't we?), he surrounds himself with completely superficial people because superficiality is the only way he knows to fit in, and he totally doesn't notice the direct and not-so-subtle advances from the "right girl" who is, also, way too nice to take risks as well.In short, it's an absolutely delightful sort of aside in the whole romantic comedy industry, but still uses a lot of the tropes and techniques usual to the form to keep it simple and enjoyable for everyone.--PolarisDiB