“You're so money and you don't even know it,” friends keep telling the romantically challenged Mike (Favreau) in Swingers, a film that marks the directing debut of Doug Liman with a script written by Favreau. In the hip culture of Los Angeles, being money is the thing. In the small minds of Mike's friends Trent (Vaughn) and Sue (Van Horn), it gets you the “beautiful babies” rather than the “nasty skanks.” Happily, Swingers focuses most of its energies on Mike (rather than his Cro-Magnon friends) as he rehabilitates his romantic confidence and tries to resist the dating advice of aspiring actors Trent and Sue. An underdog in true cinematic style, Mike makes the transition both comical and bittersweet. Swingers pays homage to celluloid hipsters past and present, giving the film a sassy style in addition to an engaging, well-paced story.
D: Doug Liman; with Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston.