Swing it on
the Overnight
Four Play.
Running time: 80 minutes. Rated R (language, nudity, sexual situations). Now playing.
PROSTHETIC penises, anatomically correct paintings and breast-milk fetish videos are just some of the raunchy props in this breezy, dirty comedy from director Patrick Brice (“Creep”), spawned from the relatable premise that making friends when you’re an adult is tough.
Adam Scott’s stay-at-home dad Alex bemoans his newin-town status in Los Angeles. “Am I supposed to just ask other grown-ups if they want to be friends?” he says to his wife, Emily (Taylor Schilling), with whom he shares a low-key, loving and somewhat sexually chilly life. They gratefully accept when a fellow parent (Jason Schwartzman) invites their family over for pizza night, though they’re given pause by the big, swinging gates — a foreshadowing of sorts — at their hosts’ palatial home.
Schwartzman is perfect as Kurt, simultaneously compelling, ridiculous and creepy. You get why he wins over Alex and Emily even while spouting lines like “That water you’re drinking was initially sewage” and showing off his artwork, composed entirely of up-close anuses in acrylics.
When the kids tire, Kurt insists they put them to bed and continue on with the evening, as “we’re French.” His glamorous wife, Charlotte (Judith Godrèche), who actually is French, is a sort-of actress whose work in promotional videos for breast pumps is rolled out after the foursome gets high off an enormous glass bong; Schilling and Scott have some masterful reaction shots here.
Soon, they’re throwing off their clothes and running to the pool — or, at least, Charlotte and the cartoonishly wellendowed Kurt are. The plot both does and doesn’t go where you expect it to; a side trip the women take to a Thai massage parlor feels out of left field, but it’s still a kinder, gentler sex comedy, and that’s pretty sexy.