Chief among the conclusions to be drawn after watching Alex Holdridge's pleasing but uneven In Search Of A Midnight Kiss is that this is without a doubt a film filled with contradictions. Its visual style teeters between very graceful portraits of the otherwise modern and soulless Los Angeles cityscape (rundown theaters and sex shops included) and a very gritty handheld walk and talk style akin to less visually pleasing lo-fi indie cinema. Its script bounces back and forth between Swingers-esque bro bonding and mumblecore worthy soul searching. Even its actors oscillate between sad-eyed losers and perky, bouncy puppy lovers. It's hard to decide while watching the film if all of this is just a fault of craft or if its makers saw something more. Maybe a spontaneous, illogical bittersweetness in life just yearning to be captured on film. Can one character really jump so fast from distant and shivery cold to laughing and conversational? Can L.A. really look so delicate and beautiful in one scene and so shit in the next? Can one film be so romantic and yet so cynical? It turns out it can. It all can. And it is in In Search Of A Midnight Kiss.The film opens on the very desperate and sympathetic Wilson (Scoot McNairy) being caught masturbating to photoshopped images of Min (Kathleen Luong), the live-in girlfriend of his best friend and roommate, Jacob (Brian McGuire). Lucky for him, the amused and unfazed couple seek only to cure what ails him. They suggest a Craigslist post as a last ditch attempt at finding a mate by the night's big New Year's Eve bash where Wilson hopes to procure that all-important midnight kiss of romantic myth. He gets an enthused and brash response from a stranger named Vivian (Sara Simmonds) who agrees to meet with him but informs him that she will also be meeting with several other men that day and will know within five minutes if he is to be her midnight kissee. They meet uncute at a local cafe and slowly begin the transformation from begrudgingly associated strangers to once in a lifetime lovers.
Before Sunrise comes to mind as does Before Sunset and all the look-alike films that came in-between and thereafter. Unfortunately, Holdridge's part-raunchy, part-soulful banter doesn't cast quite the same spell that those Linklater masterpieces did. But perhaps a masterpiece wasn't exactly what was on the menu with this film. What is most certainly present is a dynamic depiction of the hard to pin down chemistry between two complex individuals. Simmonds and McNairy give alternately snarky and sweet performances that open their characters up to unpredictable turns. She, the loud-mouth realist, is offended that he brings condoms to their date and objects to his imagination's treatment of Min. He, the shell-shocked misanthrope, pushes her to bravely tell off an ex boyfriend and then aids her in the dangerous quest to rescue possessions from her apartment before the psycho comes to torch the place. Their journey together is sometimes wild and fun, occasionally very romantic, and only sometimes meandering and offbeat. It's not an out of line or previously unheard of accomplishment on film. And it pales in comparison to like-minded works. Nonetheless, it's a solid little indie effort that bares many of the marks that fans of this genre know and love.
Grade: B
