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Date Night, Review -- Geofree Capodanno |
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| Hot off the success of his lesbian werewolf horror short Simone, director Joops Fragale enters the comedy arena with his latest effort Date Night. This short film is not to be confused with the overrated Steve Carrell bore fest from last year. This time around, Fragale trades in fur and fangs for some wine and roses instead. Our lead actress (Erin Cline), only known in the credits as “She”, is on the phone talking about staying in again on a Friday night. Even though her friend urges her to go out with her and try to meet "Mr. Right", She decides refuses to concede and settles in for a Friday night on the couch. As she pops on some food into microwave to begin her “big” night, she is startled by the sudden appearance of a man in her house. “He” (David Fuit), as he is only known by in the credits, is not a creepy intruder glaring at her in the kitchen. No. He is an attractive and charming man, looking at her with the care and love a woman would at her newborn. He certainly is an alpha male who soon begins to calm the panicked She with some words of comfort. He begins telling her the most wonderful things, one after one another in a rapid fire sequence, such as “You complete me.” and “You make me want to be a better man.” Yes you are read all that correctly and yes that all seems extremely familiar. He basically hits her with every corny and sappy line from romantic movies that no real man would ever say to a woman in real life and only in script to screen. But She takes it all in. No pervs, I’m talking about the lines he feeds her…or am I talking about “that” too? Even though She firmly lands on Cloud 9, is “He” truly the man of her dreams or is there more than meets the eye? For 15 minutes, get ready to enjoy the most bizarre date night that never makes it out of the living room! While Simone was stylish and genuinely creepy, Date Night is just flat out weird and funny. Fragale’s back-to-back triumphs in two different genres with two completely different story structures definitely shows that he is extremely versatile. Simone won him over in the horror community, so hopefully Date Night will expose him to a broader audience as his career continues to progress. |
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