Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Eagle
Delivering American University's news and views since 1925
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Eagle
GOODBYE KISS - Scoot McNairy and Sara Simmonds star as two disillusioned Los Angeles residents searching for someone to share a New Year's kiss at midnight. The two find solace in each other's loneliness and aimlessly meander around the city.

'Kiss' lacks passion, colorful characters

In Search of A Midnight Kiss: C

With no job, motivation or - heaven forbid - someone to kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve, self-loathing and struggling writer Wilson is at his wit's end in Alex Holdridge's "In Search of a Midnight Kiss."

When Wilson is caught masturbating to a photo-shopped image of his roommate Jacob's girlfriend Min, he realizes it's time to find someone for himself. Jacob forces Wilson to muster up the courage to post a personal ad on Craigslist in search of the ideal midnight kiss candidate. Shortly thereafter, the vivacious Vivian responds from a nondescript motel room with prescription medications and alcohol bottles lining the desk. Chain-smoking and donning a fur coat, she's a vamp femme fatale and just the right kindred spirit to draw Wilson out of his shell.

The two meet at a coffee shop and venture upon a tumultuous, awkward and occasionally poignant date that stretches across dreary, overcast downtown Los Angeles, with detours at abandoned theaters and skyscraper rooftops. The story follows the meandering, free-flowing conversation structure of Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," yet the characters here are by-and-large run-of-the-mill indie stock characters.

The date sours once Wilson jokingly reveals how Jacob walked in on him masturbating to Min's picture earlier that day, sending the film into a painfully melodramatic tailspin to the ground. Vivian is surprisingly disgusted with Wilson and leaves him to go home, yet Wilson proves relentless and follows her throughout the city until they reach a subway station. Set to moody lo-fi tunes that would even make the music director of the "Garden State" soundtrack blush, the film frequently breaches upon becoming a music video. Vivian sits sprawled out on the ground in a subway station while a frustrated Wilson paces back and forth cursing himself over and over for his foolish ways. The shots of Wilson watching Vivian quietly cry on the subway are downright nauseating.

Filmed in black and white, "In Search of a Midnight Kiss" bares aesthetic resemblance to Woody Allen's "Manhattan" and Andrew Bujalski's "Mutual Appreciation" with stark, crisp cinematography. The film's thematic content, however, does not match its gorgeous visuals.

From start to finish, there is a distinct been-there-done-that sentiment and the culprits are the film's central characters, Wilson and Vivian. As the film's inherent hero, Wilson is an utter drag. He is a painfully self-obsessed loner who prefers to sit with his beer and cigarettes and sheepishly stare out the window while reflecting on his failures. It's clear that Wilson needs a strong-willed woman to keep him on his feet, yet the film is vague as to why Vivian needs Wilson. It is almost as though she's simply a caricature in Wilson's borderline-sociopathic world, one whose eccentricities are exploited to keep the pace afloat.

As an analysis of modern love, "In Search of a Midnight Kiss" is a bittersweet and borrowed patchwork of themes and characters from a gamut of other films. It is this reluctance to truly challenge the audience that renders the film self-consciously hip, and worst of all, emotionally bankrupt.

You can reach this staff writer at dsheldon@theeagleonline.com.


 Hosts Delaney Hoke and Penelope Jennings speak to swimmer Caleb Farris and diver Amanda bosses about their unique experiences as college athletes. 



Powered by Solutions by The State News
All Content © 2024 The Eagle, American Unversity Student Media