Chuck and Buck
directed by Miguel Arteta
starring Mike White and Chris Weitz

                       There are film theorists who believe movies should be an escape, a medium that takes us to another world to spend a few hours not thinking of the horrible aspects of life.
                       Others believe the opposite: that film should reflect the real world we live in.  It’s been an opposition since the dawn of motion pictures with the clash of George Meleis and The Lumiere Brothers.   The past few years has seen a resurgence of cinema verite with features such as The Blair Witch Project and movements like Dogma 95.   What place is there better to have a hit with this modern realism than during the superhero car chase summer blockbuster season?
            Chuck and Buck were childhood best friends during their innocent preteen years.  For a mysterious reason, Buck (Mike White, who also wrote the film) seems to be trapped in a goofy looking adult body while his mind never left those precious times.  When his mother dies and Chuck (Chris Weitz, looking like a big-eared Christopher Reeve) attends the funeral, the friends are reunited after nearly 20 years, enough time for Chuck to now go by Charlie, acquire a great job in the music business out in Los Angeles, and get engaged.  Meanwhile, Buck is still a jobless man boy who seems to have an oral fixation, continuously sucking on Blow-Pops. 
            Charlie politely hints that Buck should visit L.A. sometime, so Buck moves there. He waits a few weeks, though, stalking and spying before finally running into his lost mate. Charlie, feeling guilt and a commitment to manners, has trouble getting rid of the unwelcome Buck, who realizes that he is undesired yet relentlessly tries to convince everyone that the two are best friends forever.  Buck ends up writing a fairy tale play to be performed in a children’s theater across the street from Charlie’s office that eventually reveals more than Charlie could possibly expect.
            Chuck and Buck is one of the genre of films that makes one very uncomfortable and possibly leaving the theater disturbed in the tradition of Spanking the Monkey or Happiness although the latter of which I found utterly overloaded with subject matter.  Films of this genre work best when they are a one-joke black comedy that you could never ever laugh with, yet wish you could to ease the tension building before the exploding climax. 
            Even more successful is when the filmmakers use such a realist approach to their quality and camerawork.  Chuck and Buck was shot on digital video, giving a hand-held, voyeuristic look that has only been achieved better by divine directors Harmony Korine (Gummo) and Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves) with his Dogma 95 movement.    The acting is subtle and genuine, not only with those in title roles, but also with the surprisingly charming supporting characters played by Paul Weitz (yes, Chris’ brother, though could also pass as an Edward Burns sibling) and Lupe Ontiveros (her most memorable performance since playing Rosalita, the Spanish housekeeper in Goonies).
            Films like Chuck and Buck are instant classics even more than they are masterpieces, despite their subject matter being something most people in our taboo-obsessed society couldn’t sit through twice.  What this film has, though, is a warm-hearted, if troubled, hero who is hard to get away from.  He’s a disgusting odor you can’t get enough of.  He may not be attractive, but he is definitely cute and makes viewing his film bearable if not enjoyable.   Among the other things Chuck and Buck has going for it, though, this ends up only an added bonus.