[yasr_overall_rating]
Imagining that his friends are holding him back, an aging slacker “breaks up” with his buds on a dare only to discover that growing up isn’t a solo pastime.
Adam (Matt D’Elia) is stuck in a rut… and he’s not alone. His three best friends (Eric André, Brett Gelman and Bryan Greenberg) are in the same soiled, listing boat, trapped in a roundabout of inebriated evenings of barhopping and one-night stands. He hates his job, his drunken, loutish behavior cost him his last girlfriend and his close-knit group of friends is starting to feel less like a comfy old standby and more like a moldering straitjacket. After a typically debauched night, he tells his friends and his younger, more responsible brother, David, that he wants to make a change. David quickly takes charge, framing out a dare whereby Adam quits his bro-diction cold turkey, with stiff penalties if the posse breaks radio silence.
What follows is a tired tour of Adam’s attempts to find himself/win the girl (the customary office hottie, played winsomely by Hannah Simone) – in between sneaky attempts to stay in touch with his posse. But while Adam is trying to change his life, his friends start succeeding at evolving theirs; so much so that by the time we’re subjected to the limping, predictable vom-com ending, the lives of Adam’s friends seem more compelling and infinitely more real than the erstwhile hero’s.
Fumbling nearly every joke, “Flock of Dudes” never quite decides whether it’s a bromance, a coming-of-age story or a comedy of errors. Which is a shame, because what might have been a solid ensemble piece – the cast features Melissa Rauch, Marc Maron, Timothy Simons, Kumail Nanjiani, Kelen Coleman and Hannibal Buress – winds up wasted. Painfully slow pacing (90 minutes feels like 2+ hours), flat direction and a strained script are not helped by purposeful attempts to make this “flock” seem as lame and goofy as possible.
Case in point: early on, the dudes attend a Halloween party dressed as California Raisins. Lame, yes, but then we’re told that last year they were the Spice Girls. Seeing these guys in drag would have been way funnier. Instead of an obvious-but-amusing play on traditional gender roles that underscores the main plot point we get shriveled brown sacs. And instead of feeling like maybe there’s a glimmer of hope for this ragtag bunch, we barely feel pity.
Whether as a result of budgetary constraints or just imagination cutbacks, “Flock of Dudes” plays like a string of missed opportunities. The whole look of the film is off, switching between bland backlot locations lacking any character – which would be fine if this was supposed to be set “anywhere” – but we’re told repeatedly that they’re in LA. This blah staging would also pass if the mixed bag of characters seemed like they might really be friends in this universe. As it is, Adam’s crew seems randomly thrown together, like a sad house party.
The film’s saving grace may be David (played by “Pitch Perfect”’s Skylar Astin), the sadly underdeveloped architect of Adam’s transformation; the brothers’ on-screen interaction comes closest to approximating a realistic emotional bond.
Rather than an amusing late-in-life coming of age story, we’re left with a mess that ends on a forced, saccharine note.
“Flock of Dudes?” More like Flock of Duds.
In theaters and on Digital September 30th
