‘College sucks, but you’re also not trying...’
Writer-director Cooper Raiff first came to my attention as the triple threat (he also acts) behind Cha Cha Real Smooth – a film that I saw recently and adored. In fact, I adored it so much that I decided to check out his debut feature Shithouse too. If anything, this might even be even better than the film that followed it…
Alex (Raiff) is struggling at college. His only ‘friend’ is his stoner roommate Sam (Logan Miller) who hates him. After spontaneously deciding to attend a party at the eponymous ‘Shithouse’, Alex meets Maggie (Dylan Gelula) and the two share a meandering and emotionally exhausting evening together.
On the face of it, Shithouse is a dramedy about Alex and Maggie that takes its cues from the work of Zach Braff (most notably Garden State) and the mumblecore movies of the Duplass brothers and Joe Swanberg (indeed, it was Jay Duplass who encouraged Raiff to turn what was originally a short film into a full-length feature). Under the surface, however, Shithouse is about so much more than two people meeting cute, sharing an evening together and then facing up to their true selves the next morning, it’s also about loneliness, addiction and family. Alex is smothered by the love he shares with his mother and sister, whereas Maggie is crippled by the indifference of her own parents. The two characters together make for a combustible mixture, helped along by a pair of captivating performances from the two leads.
In short, I loved Shithouse. It’s got a big heart, a great soundtrack and just enough laughs to ensure that it isn’t a bummer – an underseen gem.
