"It's a Disaster" (2013)

 

You're dating this person and things are going well, well enough that they want to introduce you to their closest friends. So they take you to small get-together, a couples' brunch, and suddenly you're thrown into the middle of all their drama and history. It's a Disaster understands how nerve-racking and strange, but all-too-familiar, this type of situation is, and uses David Cross' excellent straight-man act as a gateway into the souring group dynamics of old friends harboring bitter resentments and secrets. For the first third of its run-time, the film plays like a well-scripted stage drama, like a Neil Simon farce. People exit in and out of rooms, and talk past one another sharing important information in an Altman-esque fashion. Things go nuclear with affairs, divorce plans and other terrible truths revealed.

And then things literally go nuclear, and the film's title takes on duel meanings. Dirty bombs destroy every major city in the United States, and, at first, the characters don't even pick up on it, they're so caught up in their drama that it doesn't even register. They scramble to make the house sustainable against nuclear fall-out. But even as they make the house hospitable, they can't stop bickering, fighting and sticking their nose into everyone's business. The apocalyptic circumstances serve to heighten the drama and forces them to face up to their problems.

The film's strength derives from letting apocalypse simply play out in the background while the relationships take precedence. The film doesn't aim for high concept. Everything is suggested off-screen, never actually shown and it rarely upstages the characters, acting as catalyst to watch the characters expose the anger and irritation hiding behind barely sustained facades. It's a Disaster is aided by uniformly great performances for well-written and distinguished characters. Every character reacts to civilization's downfall in different ways which are granted their craziness by the equally crazy circumstances. People begin exposing all manner of hidden tics and inner states, demonstrating the dysfunctional nature of these individuals and their relationships but also oddly reaffirming their codependency. 

Grade: ★★★