Review of The Skeleton Twins (2014) by Ethan B — 01 Oct 2014

Skeleton Twins is full of broken fish tanks, shots of SNL cast members laughing together, scored emotion, ice cream moments, sweaters, and pretty 4K images-conjuring light, semi-forced tugs at our inner hipster heartstrings. If you wanted a pumpkin spiced latte before, then you'll really want one after you see this film.

The "I wait tables at a touristy place in Hollywood, it fucking boring, okay?" quote sums up the lower end of the spectrum of dialogue. At times I was cradled by the emotion and tender sadness, and at other times I felt like the improv darlings, all though self-contained, mini treasures themselves, should have been left for dead on the editing bay floor. I laughed three times out loud. One of them was during the epically long lip syncing scene, which was wonderfully executed. I felt that "oh this is good" feeling once when the pool foreshadowing came to fruition in the final minutes of the film. The moment was quickly squandered when I couldn't stop thinking, "how'd he know exactly where she was?" Bill Hader is fun to watch. He's Stefon if Stefon was playing a gay guy in an indie flick. Wiig plays the character she is portraying; that's all I can say. She is naturally funny and entertaining to watch. Her "what is my fucking life" face plays well, but don't let it fool you into thinking she is dramatically transformative in this movie. Luke Wilson steals the show, giving us an honest and simple performance that makes us feel for him and wonder, "hey? Why wasn't his and Wiig's story ever resolved?" Really? We get 200 skeleton motifs but not one more conversation between them? He's such a nice guy. The movie is very much like the characters if they existed in real life: At times you love them and at other times you wish they would get their shit together.

Overall:

B-.