You're probably familiar with the manic pixie romcom formula which is basically: take 1 hyper quirky happy girl with short hair and pair her with a straight-faced, straight-laced, lovable loser of a guy, shake vigorously and hilarity ensues. Fine examples include "500 Days of Summer" (Zooey Deschanel), "Yes Man" (Zooey Deschanel), or anything else that has (Zooey Deschanel). Here we have an interesting twist on the manic pixie romcom formula. Our manic pixie is a real a-hole. And it's the straight-laced loser guy who is the breath of fresh air in her otherwise decaying life.
"Alright Now" is the story of a washed up 30-something, one-hit-wonder singer from the 90s "Jo" (Cobie Smulders) as she struggles with the denial that she can't play the guitar and that that her hip 90s wardrobe is now "ironic vintage" attire. She herself has become a joke to the young kids. So what does she do? She enrolls in college. It's a great premise, like a blend of Riann Wilson's "The Rocker" and Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School" in the context of a manic pixie romcom.
The presentation is very realistic with a lot of improvised scenes that carry a natural awkward brand of humor. Jo trades subtle gags and not-so-subtle sexual innuendo with our lovable loser "Peter" (Richard Elis) who plays the admissions officer at the college but mostly stumbles around like a Welsh rarebit in the headlights. You'll enjoy this if you like awkward humor and imperfect dialogue (people talking over each other, often mumbling nonsense but with the occasional under-the-breath punchline like in films with Michael Cera "Juno", "Superbad", etc). But if you prefer a more traditional type of comedy with scripted jokes and planned gags, you might not get into this flick.
The tagline on the DVD reads "an unconventional romantic comedy" and that's one of the most accurate taglines I've ever seen. This movie presents itself as a romcom, but it deliberately avoids the romcom clichés. There are no emotional airport chase scenes or perfectly planned climactic monologues ending in "You had me at hello". Those movies are a lot of fun, but this is not one of them. This is a romcom at the speed of real life. Like the tagline says, this movie is unconventional. But if you're ready for anything, even a kick in the nuts or two, then this movie will be a fun watch. (In all fairness, guys, you should never sneak up on a woman who is deep in the transcendental serenity of meditation. Not without wearing a jockstrap.)
