Uncle Kent

Pretty sublimely mumblecore, UNCLE KENT, one of the four features Joe Swanberg released in 2011, is, for him, a mostly one-sided view of male desires. UNCLE KENT is without balance, and despite its immersive nature and hang-out sensibilities, it's immature. UNCLE KENT begins with the character of the title, who lives a boring life day-by-day working out of his apartment on sketches for a children's animated tv show. He talks with his friends, and has a lazy life consisting of excess bong hits and an unhealthy obsession with chat roulette. He mentions to a friend that he's got some woman coming into town. He met her on chat roulette, a "modern" twist Swanberg imposes, and although she has a boyfriend, he has particular expectations out of the girl. Kent, recently 40, is enamored with the librarian-like Kate (Jennifer Prediger), and although their relationship is undefined, he feels as if they can take it in a certain direction. Their time together becomes filled with sexual experiences, though not with each other. Kent steals some nude pictures of Kate off of her camera, they have an almost-threesome with a young 20 year old from Craigslist. But Swanberg's film is too imbalanced, and we have no sense of why Kate acts the way she does teasingly, except from a guyish perception of Kate as a bitch. In NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS, Swanberg's collaboration with Greta Gerwig, there was a forced balance, but in UNCLE KENT, there is just a one-sided near misogyny.
Uncle Kent: ★★