Clever in a film is really good. Too clever is too much of a bad thing. All About Who You Know is a bit too clever.
Writer/director Jake Horowitz creates a screenplay with the screenplay for Cole (Dylan Everett). Cole has no experience with relationships. He wants to be a successful screenplay writer but goes about in an atypical fashion. Cole sets on seducing Haley (Niamh Wilson), daughter of famous screenwriter Michael (British actor David Hewlett).
Cole has a best friend Austin (Stephen Joffe) who also wants to be a screenwriter. Austin takes a more traditional way to getting a break.
Cole plays on the typical romantic comedies and turns them on their head. Horowitz is doing this within the film you are watching. Cole, through Horowitz, feels like a fake character trying to manipulate real people. Rooting against Cole is pretty easy. The surprise is that everyone else in the film is going along for the ride.
Horowitz may be a genius in making the Cole-Austin relationship between Cole and Austin more real than the potential romantic Cole-Haley matchup.
Cole is the grasshopper and Austin is the ant in the old time fable. Haley is just an innocent bystander. Haley wants to be a singer but Cole sees Haley as the daughter of a famous person and has an easy life compared to his.
Cole has elements of John Cusack minus the charm and looks. The dialogue is clever but not memorable.
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Points to Horowitz for incorporating The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell from the Ladies of the Canyon album.
Joffe, who is also the lead singer of Toronto-based alternative rock band Birds of Bellwoods, knows he is the sidekick since the script literally says so. He shows a lot of angst that Austin feels when Cole screws him over again and again.
Wilson, who was so good as Mouse in Giant Little Ones, plays a messed-up young woman who doesn't reveal anymore than she has to with her character.
All About Who You Know has considerable flaws. Cole is as determined as he is misguided. An early scene with snow doesn't fit the time of year of the rest of the scene. The film hits more than a few traffic cones in the driving test.
If you like romantic comedies that play with the concept a bit, you might get some pleasure out of the film. This film would have been a lot better with Cole and Austin or even Haley and Austin.
All About Who You Know is available in the United States on IMDbTV and Pluto TV.
video credit: YouTube/Sideways Dog Productions
photo credit: All About Who You Know film
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