Bart Got a Room

WRITER'S NOTE: I could not find any photos of this film other than the poster art, so until I find some, this will have to be a text-only review. I apologize in advance.

If Bart Got a Room sometimes seems to resemble a home movie, that's probably because the film is heavily influenced by first time writer-director Brian Hecker's own teenage years. He even sets the movie where he grew up - Hollywood, Florida. Setting a teen comedy around a retirement community in Florida may seem like an odd choice, but this is an odd movie. It's also largely ineffective and unmemorable, despite a few scattered laughs and a strong cast who somehow got wrapped up into this paper-thin quirky little semi-autobiographical comedy.

The star of the story is Danny, played here by Steven Kaplan. Danny's your typical geeky high school student. So typical, in fact, that his physical appearance seems to be the end result of a scientific experiment that tried to fuse Michael Cera from Superbad and Juno, and Jason Biggs from the American Pie films together. The prom is coming up, and the pressure is on for Danny to find a date and a hotel room for after the party. The fact that Bart Beeber (Chad Jamian Williams), the biggest geek in school, has managed to somehow get a date and a room fuels Danny's quest and inspires the film's title. Danny tries his luck with different girls, little realizing that the solution to his problem is right there in front of him in the form of his best friend, Camille (Alia Shawkat). Also along for the ride are Danny's recently divorced parents, Ernie (William H. Macy, wearing a fright wig that would make Ronald McDonald jealous) and Beth (Cheryl Hines), whose efforts to give him advice on dating usually get him in more trouble, such as when dad gives his son a street corner prostitute as a last minute date idea when Danny still has no one to go to the prom with when the limo is waiting outside his house.

Even with a slim 80 minute running time, Bart Got a Room seems somewhat thin when it comes to ideas and inspiration. There are some funny lines here and there, and some of the situations his parents put him through may be far fetched but deliver laughs, such as when his dad tests how thin the walls in his new house are by making orgasmic noises, with Danny being forced to listen from the next room. In fact, William H. Macy as the clueless father gets all of the film's laughs. His futile attempts to re-enter the dating scene after the divorce brings a very funny scene with a potential date (Jennifer Tilly in a hilarious cameo) that's over far too soon. Whenever Macy's character isn't on the screen, the movie seems to get bogged down in its own cliches, and just never seems all that involving. We all know who the right girl is the second she walks onto the screen. We also don't sympathize enough with Danny, because we don't know enough about him aside from his single-minded determination to one-up the geekiest kid in school.

The fact that we don't care about the characters or about what's going on drags down the entire movie. For his first effort, Brian Hecker does certainly show some promise. He certainly knows how to shoot the Florida landscape in an attractive way, and he gets some strong performances out of his talented cast. He just doesn't do a good job convincing us that this is a story that needs to be told in the first place, or that his characters are worth our time and attention. I understand the personal connection, but if he wants to charge theatrical prices, he has to give us more other than nostalgia. You sometimes get the sense that Hecker is more concerned about meeting his needs of remembering his past than the simple need of the audience wanting to be entertained. He also might want to aim a little more for honesty in his next feature, instead of contrived situations that seem ripped out of a sitcom.

Bart Got a Room isn't a terrible movie, and it does have a kind of sweet charm to it that makes the movie breeze right on by. Maybe that's the problem with it. It's too breezy and too inconsequential to create any lasting impact. The movie fades from your mind like a mirage minutes after you walk out of the theater. I do hope Hecker gets to show his talent with a more worthwhile project, and considering he's writing the script about the life of Nolan Bushnell (one of the grandfathers of the video game industry), it sounds like he will. Bart Got a Room serves as a way to get his foot in the door, but as a movie, it comes up short.

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