I dont know why I went on this run of “everyone in the same house” movies or reunion movies recently. I think it’s because I’ve also been on this hunt for “smaller” movies that are more character driven and let actors perform rather than rely on set pieces. Nothing against blockbusters or other big movies because I’ll go see them, but between the constant coverage of every aspect of their production to the constant bitching online by fans, I’m exhausted. I also think we’re losing these types of movies because streaming services aren’t really interested in sending them our way.

Okay, done yelling at a cloud. The Intervention is a 2016 movie directed by Clea DuVall, who plays one of several characers who are at a huge house just outside of Savannah for a weekend. Their plan is to get two friends who are a married couple–Ruby (Cobie Smulders) and Peter (Vincent Piazza)–there so the rest of the friend group can hold a marriage intervention. There are, of course, other issues: other couples are fighting; and Annie (Melanie Lynsky), who came up with this whole idea, seems to do nothing but drink. It’s her problems that are actually more important over the course of the film and that adds up to her friends taking up for her by the end.

The film is a late-1990s movie reunion in some cases, as DuVall and Natasha Lyonne play the couple who own/oversee the house, and Lynsky herself was in several movies from the era. The rest of the cast is very solid and includes Jason Ritter and Ben Schwartz. Lynsky is the standout (which shouldn’t be a surprise because she’s amazing is just about everythng she’s ever in) and plays the “alcoholic who doesn’t realize she’s an alcoholic” role well, not dipping over into drunken characature.

Not that there aren’t flaws in the film. It pulls a little too much from The Big Chill‘s aesthetic, but not in a way that About Alex (another Jason Ritter movie) did. The characters get frustrating from time to time, although I think that’s on purpose, and some scenes are a little overdone. But those are quibbles and I enjoyed this movie because the cast has a solid amount of chemistry and their characters feel like a lived-in group of friends. And finally, it’s a “small” “everyone is talking” movie that doesn’t feel pretentious.

This was streaming on Kanopy when I watched it and probably still is. I’d definitely check it out.

Watch or Skip?

Watch.