Swingers

A group of struggling actors in Los Angeles (Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, Patrick Van Horn and Alex Désert) helps one of their own (Jon Favreau) get over a tough break-up.

Swingers is often described as a romantic comedy for guys and that’s about as apt a description as you’re going to find. Writer and star Jon Favreau delivers an honest look at the insecurities, ambitions, and challenges faced by young men in today’s world. Granted, the results are sometimes painful to watch, but only because we can all relate to them.

The friendships on screen may not be realistic, but they nonetheless feel true, perhaps because we want so much to believe they can exist. Favreau taps into that same underlying spirit of male bonding that Howard Hawks touched on so well in many of his films, only this time its Vince Vaughn in the John Wayne role.

And what a performance from Vaughn. He’s a catch-phrase machine radiating an almost blinding charisma in a performance would catapult him to stardom. Yet, it’s a testament to the talent of director Doug Liman that Vaughn doesn’t overshadow the film, and that the movie works without Vaughn onscreen.

Finally, the film ages well. By having its mid-nineties characters so immersed in 50s era culture, it creates a world all its own, and in doing so, avoids “dating” itself and remains accessible to future generations.