Orange On the Aisle: London

I had seen a bit of London, usually the same scene, several times but finally watched it from the beginning recently. And despite the fact most of the characters are detestable, I kind of liked it.

The plot basically concerns Syd, played by Chris Evans, moping about and freaking out in the bathroom at a going away party for his ex-girlfriend. Luckily for the filmmakers this bathroom is huge, because 75 percent of the movie takes place in there. So good location scouting, dudes.

Joining Syd in the bathroom for venting and debate, along with a good deal of drug and booze ingestion, is Bateman, played by Jason Statham. He's basically a sounding board but dips into his own issues eventually.

While Syd works up the courage to exit the bathroom and speak to London, played by Jessica Biel, we get flashbacks and backstory. We also get that Syd is an overly dramatic ego-maniac, London's likely a cheating shit-talker, and the partygoers are coked-up skeezas. The only character you kind of like is Bateman, but he's helped by the fact he's Jason Statham. Louis C.K. also has an amusing cameo as Syd's therapist.

London feels like it was based off a play, and reminded me of
Hurlyburly a bit, which I also liked despite detestable, self-absorbed characters pontificating while doing heaps of coke and booze.

Not great, but better than I expected. It should be noted Evans (a good casting choice in Fantastic Four, probably the only one), did most of the movie in sweatpants. Interesting choice.

— 3 out of 5 white lines off a painting