Written & Directed by Harrison Xu, Ivan Leung & Katherine Dudas
Welcome to January, the time on the film calendar when one of two things is happening: either everybody is focusing on previous year wrap-up and awards movies finally getting wide releases, or small, experimental or trashy movies are getting released in “Dumpuary”. Trashy movies are getting dumped and off the books by studios looking to fill scheduling gaps, while small independent movies like Extremely Unique Dynamic are getting a chance to spread their wings when no one else and no other time would allow for it. Oftentimes these movies can be weird and amateurish and sometimes you can discover some really interesting stuff that might not entirely work. This is a movie that falls firmly in the second bucket.
Daniel (Ivan Leung) and Ryan (Harrison Xu) are longtime friends who have been living in LA trying to make it as actors, trying all sorts of things to become famous. But when Ryan is ready to move to Edmonton with his girlfriend, giving up on the LA dream, the two come together for one last weekend together. Deciding to make a film with their time, they embark on a triple meta experiment of a movie about them making a movie about them making a movie. It’s as confusing as it sounds, but along the way to connect like they never have before, reckoning with their evolving friendship and what it means for one of them to move away.
Admittedly, it’s not one of the easiest plot synopsis’ to follow, but luckily this film uses its time very wisely and isn’t really much about the meta-ness of the film within a film within a film. It’s merely one of the handful of silly cinematic nods the film attempts to make, showing off how much these characters (and presumably actors) know about the industry. We get it, they like movies and want to be stars. That’s the worst part of the movie, but it’s also the best part of the movie in some ways. It’s very winking, not in the way that it thinks it’s clever with the three levels of meta, but in that it acknowledges how ridiculous the setup is. It’s winking at itself and not taking itself too seriously, which really becomes a strength of the film once the reality of the situation makes its way into the narrative, with two longtime best friends reckoning with parting ways, being left on their own.
The move seems to be affecting Daniel more than Ryan, but one crazy weekend making a silly little film really affords them the chance to clear the air and reconnect in a way they’ve avoided for far too long. The realization that they really love each other and will miss one another hits harder than it deserves to in a film like this, but Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu, the filmmakers and actors, really sell it well. The truth manages to find its way out of this otherwise bonkers premise, making for a very surprising and rewarding experience.
But there is still far too much silliness throughout to fully forgive it. Poor, unnatural and underwhelming acting throughout, with a sense that these are two filmmakers are only capable of the imagination to put their own story to film than any other story they might be able to concoct. That’s not necessarily a fair critique of this film specifically; they always say to write what you know. And it wouldn’t be fair to critique the impossibly small scope of the film either, as they manage to get across a very heartfelt experience without, I imagine, much of a budget at all and even fewer locations. This is not auteur or virtuoso filmmaking when it comes to the craft. But Leung and Xu manage to nail the emotions. It feels real and genuine, and that’s more than enough for them to succeed here. It’s just not going to blow your doors off either.
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