Amazon Prime must-watch: Victor Levin's smart and hilarious DESTINATION WEDDING

What a treat it is to see two notable, long-time actors like Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder rip into dialog that's smart, sophisticated and most of all bracingly negative -- about everything -- and keep you smiling, chuckling and outright guffawing for an entire 90 minutes. How the succulent-if-nasty delights of DESTINATION WEDDING managed to elude so many of our supposed cultural guardians (only 42% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes,  though 63% of audiences liked it) surprises me, all right, but don't allow these goodies to bypass you. Grab this unusual movie while it streams via Amazon Prime, and let the luscious, hilarious mega-negativity wash over you. Really: You will not have heard dialog like this for, ummmm, quite some time. If ever.

The product of writer/director Victor Levin who, back in 2015, gave us the wonderfully smart, sophisticated, funny and moving love story, 5 to 7 (which remains among my favorites of all time), the movie and Mr. Levin (shown at left) have gone out on a limb and taken some really surprising chances.

First of all, the film is a two-hander. Oh, we see a bunch of other characters, but we never hear a word they say. Instead, all of the lip-smacking bile that constitutes the dialog here emanates only from the mouths of Frank (Mr. Reeves, below, left) and Lindsay (Ms Ryder, below, right), as they meet and almost immediately take a total dislike to each other.

How this comes about (in a tiny airport waiting area below) and continues through the rehearsal dinner, the wedding itself and even the after-party serve up a nonstop disgorging of some of the funniest and angriest logorrhea imaginable. But it is not simply unpleasant. These two people are smart, educated and very well-spoken, hence their ravings are usually as witty and on-point as they are angry and rude.

And, yes, it is clear before very long that the two are also hurt and frightened children who are of course destined for each other.  But the getting to that destination -- oh, my: the double meaning of the movie's title has only just occurred to me now -- is what provides all the fun.

That dialog also gives us some history and reams of exposition (as the two get to know each other, nastily) as well as a slow, bit-by-bit puncturing of some very well-armed defense systems. What a joy it is to see Ryder and especially Reeves tackling dialog this good and making the very most of it. Each actor also sees to it that his and her character's humanity never goes missing, no matter how bilious and accusatory are their rants.

Writer/director Levin is also wise enough not to allow sentimentality to mar things, even as our couple begins to grow bizarrely closer. Whether via surprise encounter with a wild animal or a hilarious fuck scene in which the dialog never stops, right through to the only somewhat hopeful finale, our protagonists keeping sparring and warring.

The arid, vast Paso Robles/San Luis Obispo California scenery (above) is enjoyable to see, and so are the nods/digs at all those things -- typical and atypical -- that make weddings such crazy, ridiculous fun. By the end of this oddball journey, if Reeves and Ryder and their unusual characters have not proven pretty close to indelible, I shall be very surprised.

Released in theaters last month via Regatta, the movie is now streaming on Amazon (and maybe elsewhere). Don't let this one get by you.

Still the year's best love story: Victor Levin's sweet knockout, 5 TO 7, makes its DVDebut

When I covered 5 TO 7 just prior to its theatrical debut last April (that review is here),  I found it a remarkable example of culture-clash love story. Seeing it again this week on DVD -- where it will hit the streets for rental and purchase from IFC Films this coming Tuesday, August 18 -- I am even more impressed. On second viewing it holds up beautifully, delivering its charm, humor, surprise and sadness with a knockout combination of intelligence and grace. As written and directed by Victor Levin, it's an example of the height this genre can achieve, in which both grasp and reach are at one.

Mr. Levin, shown at right, has many more credits as writer than director, yet he has done a sterling job at both in this film. He's nailed the mind-set of a certain kind of writer -- his hero, Brian, played very well by Anton Yelchin -- without wasting any time trying to mimic the actual process of writing itself (something movies almost never get right and, in any case, is boring to view). He has given us the thrill and beauty of first love -- first real and important love, that is -- and balanced it quite deftly with life and all its compromises. Most important he's nailed the role of children and how defining they are in the decisions we make.

In tackling, as he does so well, the cultural difference between European and American mores regarding morality, sexuality and relationships, Levin has provided some utterly juicy roles for supporting characters -- Frank Langella and Glenn Close as Brian's parents -- and thoughtful, smart ones for actors such as Lambert Wilson and Olivia Thirlby, who play, respectively, the love object's husband and that husband's mistress.

As the love object herself, Arielle, the filmmaker has cast a remarkable performer, French actress Bérénice Marlohe, below, left, who uses her killer smile and graceful, mature composure to such devastating effect that she'll have you every bit as in thrall as she does our young hero. How the filmmaker employs Arielle's character to bring home his thoughts on compromise and life lessons is quite lovely, leading to a finale that balances poignancy with beauty, sadness and loss with a kind of joyful understanding and acceptance of that compromises we must make. And Levin's final line should resonate like crazy with most writers out there.

And yes, as on first viewing, I still feel that the movie works because the people here have no "money problems." This is a film about the entitled. Twice along the way, a character mentions something to the effect that, every so often life surprises us with its grace. Yes -- and especially, as here, when you don't have to worry about how you are going to afford your next meal.  Well, audiences in hard times have always flocked to movies in which the wealthy are seen at play. We still do, and I suspect that I'll return to 5 to 7 every once in awhile, to view a love story that understands the bigger picture and to be royally entertained while also being reminded of the costs involved. For you not to watch the film at least once would represent a real loss. 

Victor Levin's little treasure, 5 TO 7: Out of the blue comes the best love story in many a year

An instant classic, as well as the finest love story -- small, endearing but enduring, full of surprise, sadness and joy -- that I've seen since can't-remember-when, 5 TO 7, the new film by a fellow named Victor Levin (shown below), will surely knock the socks off folk looking for a movie romance that is funny, moving, believable and intelligent.

For foreign film buffs, the title 5 to 7 can only bring to mind the wonderful Agnes Varda movie, Cleo from 5 to 7. Comparisons are not inapt, as this new film, though much more "mainstream," is also quite French (in its attitudes, along with two of its stars). Its purpose -- together with entertaining us royally -- is to make us think and consider possibilities for relationships that we may not have allowed ourselves as yet enough freedom to fully engage. As writer/director, Mr. Levin's set-up could hardly be more European: a struggling young writer (Anton Yelchin, below, right) and a slightly older woman (Bérénice Marlohe, below, left) become involved, initially purely for a trysting relationship -- that will take place between the hours of, yes, 5 to 7pm.

Where this relationship goes will not be difficult to guess, but how it gets there, and how it engulfs us -- ah, that's something else. Mr. Levin has a splendid touch with dialog. I have not heard anything quite this good in a love story since, well, the time of the classics. And Levin doesn't do "racy," either. He's not trying to get us all hot and bothered with double entendres and the like. He want us to listen. And hear. And the conversation is so good that we hang on every word.

Visually, the director and his cinematographer (Arnaud Potier) do some lovely things with middle- and long-distance shots, over which some of that crack dialog is heard. This gives us viewers distance, as well, so that we see (and hear) the relationship as it grows and deepens -- without so many of those crass close-ups that eventually seem to cheapen things.

We see three generations in the process of this storytelling, too, with the older one brought to terrific life and art by Glenn Close (above, left) and Frank Langella (above, center), who play the Yelchin character's parents with tremendous humor and grace.

The "other man" -- just how European this movie will seem becomes plain when you discover his identity -- is played with his usual flair and substance by Lambert Wilson (above, left), while that man's mistress is played by an actress we can't get enough of, Olivia Thirlby (below).

The casting here is inspired, and so are the performances -- especially those of Yelchin (vital and engaging at every moment) and Ms Marlohe (below, who has both great beauty and a lovely, ever-so-slightly-withholding presence that often marks one of the differences between American and European actresses).

The cast also includes a number of important New Yorkers who actually play themselves (one such honcho is shown below). Mr. Levin, or his casting directors-- Billy Hopkins and Heidi Levitt -- must have some connections to have gotten these people to agree to their cameos. Or maybe it was the screenplay itself. Who would want to pass up the chance to be a part of a motion picture this good?

Culture clash, coming-of-age, love, lust, and the important of children and family. All of these are somehow given their due, along with themes of creativity, writing, and what counts as art. This is quite a lot to pack into a mere 95 minutes. But damned if Mr. Levin has not done it.

His final scene strikes such a amazing balance of strength and poignancy that you'll be holding your breath, while his final line of dialog is simply magical (and, I suspect, more truthful in actual example than not). His film is also an ode to the park benches (above, with their little plaques) of our sometimes fair and way over-entitled city.

In fact, the movie is a tricky kind of ode to that entitlement. What makes 5 to 7 a fantasy (for anyone except the wealthy) is that all this only happens here to those of entitlement. Our young man is no starving writer; in fact, as helped along by his wealthy parents, he lives pretty damned well. And all those he get involved with are living well, too.

This does nothing to lessen the film's intelligence nor its beauty. But a fantasy -- for those of us in the no-longer-middle-class or the working-poor -- it most certainly is.

5 to 7, from IFC Films, opens this Friday, April 3, in New York City at the IFC Center and probably elsewhere, too. The following Friday, April 10, it makes its VOD debut, so just about everyone across the country can discover the pleasures of this wonderful, intelligent and almost shockingly mature love story.