I don't mention it below but I'd be unable to forgive myself should I not mention Jess Weixler. She is an amazing and eclectic actress, and I may honestly be in love with her more than any of the men and women I declare my love for in the below thoughts.

I may be in love with Tyler Labine. I’m not talking like the hardcore gay sex kind of love that I feel and would totally be open for when talking about Steve Buscemi (I plan on starting a blog to share my fan-fiction of Mr. Buscemi and me, so keep an eye out for that); no, I’m talking about how he seems like a cool guy to meet and hang out with. He’s probably not, he’s probably a horribly mean person who wouldn’t hang out with me – much like I fear that Mr. Buscemi would not be into making love to me – and since I will never meet either man I cling to the fantasy that both are cool guys.

            The first movie I recall seeing Tyler Labine in was Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and that movie was perfectly executed, though it may take a bit at the start to get going, once it does it is well worth the ride. Anyone tired of slasher movies, and anyone tired of those movies that “cleverly” poke fun at the slasher movies – TD vs E is the perfect movie for you, a chaotic mess of gore and comedy that works because the people in the movie are all into it. It’s like all the actors are tracking with the tone of the movie and it shows, the whole movie is a homerun of comedic timing, good acting and good directing and all of it based on a strong script.

            The next movie I saw him in was Cottage Country, and I’ve already reviewed that movie so all I can do now is reiterate how perfect an example that movie is for one to see and understand what a dark comedy movie is all about and how it should look. It was that movie, Cottage Country, when I first saw Lucy Punch, a girl I fell in love with because though she was in the movie only briefly she stood out as one of the best / funniest things about the whole movie.

            So when I saw that both Tyler and Lucy were in the movie Someone Marry Barry I had to check it out. From the beginning, with TD vs E, my wife had been with me and had enjoyed every movie Tyler had been in – and then we saw this movie.

            Someone Marry Barry was like a very long episode of a stupid TV show – take your pick of any situational comedy show – crossed with a romantic comedy movie.

TV show with rom-com a movie that my wife and I will enjoy does not make.

            I thought the movie was pointless, but funny – and around halfway through it I fell asleep. I was laughing and the movie wasn’t horrible, it was just dull. My wife did not like Tyler’s character – which was kind of the point, but she found him too annoying and was unable to see anything redeeming about him. From the start she was not at all interested in his finding happiness, and to me from the start Barry was funny and his friends were not. I think Someone Marry Barry is proof that Tyler – though a great comedic actor, as he has proven in previous movies – cannot carry a movie on his own. The other characters in this movie were just not strong enough to help Tyler support the movie and carry it into something that was better than just “meh”.

            I woke up at the end of the movie and didn’t even ask my wife how it was. I could tell she didn’t like it, though when I was awake she laughed at parts, but for the most part it wasn’t worth it. I wasn’t too interested in finding out how it ended (I’m guessing I’ve seen enough movies to have a good idea of how things worked out for everyone) so Someone Marry Barry was a giant stumble during our journey through Tyler’s streaming film history.

The next night we watched was Best Man Down. I talked about it briefly in a previous blog post stating simply:

Best Man Down does not look good – at all.

            I did not plan on liking Best Man Down, which may be why I loved it. It is a quiet, slow movie that relies heavily on the acting. The story is very basic and is probably why I did not think the movie looked good at all when I saw the preview. I put it on my list even though I never intended to watch it (that’s how I roll, and one reason why my wife was near ecstatic when Netflix offered profiles. Her movie list is a piece of artistic minimalism while mine is pretty much a pile of movies that appeal to my left brain / right brain extremism) and after our run of Tyler movies it seemed fitting that we would check this one out. My wife had no idea what it was about, just that it had the Barry guy in it and at the start it was like a sequel to the Barry movie. My wife asked if he ever played any character other than the drunk and rude and obnoxious guy.

            By the time the Best Man Down movie had ended my wife and I were very near in tears (I mean my wife was very near in tears, I was never near tears – in fact I don’t think I’ve ever cried, so there). No matter how bad any other movie Tyler does, all you need to do is check this movie out to see that the man can act.

            The movie Best Man Down was powerful because of the mother daughter relationship going on with the young girl who at first seems to have nothing in common with the main plot until we find out that she does. Actually, the main characters – the couple getting married – feel secondary to the story of the best man and his relationship with the girl, which takes up probably just a little less than half the movie – but it feels bigger. When we’re following the newlyweds, we’re waiting to find out the connection between the girl and the best man, and then the mystery of how they came to know each other is layered in such a way that it keeps you waiting and wanting to know the full story.

           

            I said the story of Best Man Down is nothing special, and it’s not, but it’s the way people involved make it special, and interesting, and it’s the acting that makes it powerful and emotional.

            By the end of Best Man Down my wife and I felt emotionally wrecked and on a whim I played the first episode of a series called Sons of Tuscon which also starred Tyler. It apparently ran for only one season back in 2010, and the first episode was pretty dang funny, but again it wasn’t solely on Tyler, the kids he’s paired up with were good enough actors, and the situation they’re in is interesting (not at all believable but only for a TV show, which was good because that’s what we were watching).

            We haven’t watched any more of the series, but plan on it, and because of Best Man Down we look forward to checking out more movies that have Tyler Labine.