Lola Versus Review

Its marketing posits Lola Versus as a spiritual successor to (500) Days of Summer, hoping to lure in all those hip kids who flocked to that wonderful romcom a few summers ago.  Distributed by Fox Searchlight, Lola Versus does have a few things in common with my second favorite movie of all time, but most of the similarities are only skin-deep.  Lola Versus checks off many boxes on the indie romance list of hipster cred: brightly-lit soft-focus montages of love (and weed smoking), a cool soundtrack, a leading lady on the verge of being the next It-Girl (this time, the beautiful Greta Gerwig), and a denouncement of films that indoctrinate impressionable children with unrealistic expectations for their future love lives.

On paper, it sounds like a winner: a fairly conventional one, yes, but a winner nonetheless.  And in many ways, Lola Versus is a winner, but it's cut from a very different cloth than (500) Days of Summer, and you may feel a little cheated if you go into the movie expecting the glow of optimism Tom felt at that movie's end.  If (500) Days of Summer is the West Coast of Love - dreamy, upbeat, and cinematic despite its soft rage against the misleading movies that have come before - then Lola Versus is the East Coast: not as likable, a bit dirty, a little rude, and more of a downer.

Much of this vibe comes from the problematic protagonist.  Lola starts off as the victim of shitty circumstances, but rather than rally to overcome them and become a better, more well-rounded person, Lola spends most of the film in a nosedive, surrendering to these circumstances and blaming them for her transformation into a selfish and self-destructive mess.  Protagonists don't need to be likable - not by a long shot - but it's frustrating to have a lead that you don't really have a reason to care about, and that's the main way that Lola Versus stumbles.  Lola's reaction to her circumstances is refreshing in its ugly honesty, and perhaps even more relatable to audiences who probably would react similarly in such situations, but the film lacks a hook to make the audience stick by her as she sinks super low before (spoiler alert) finally starting to get her act together.

It's a testament to Gerwig's talent, then, that Lola remains so watchable and almost likable, despite how frustrating she never ceases to be.  Gerwig makes Lola cute and comical as she stumbles through post-breakup life, but doesn't overplay these qualities as to make them cloying or, even worse, excuses for her behavior.  Lola is confused, yes, but not as confused as she acts, and there's never a doubt about it.  Gerwig gives Lola momentum, even as the character lacks direction, making for an intensely interesting watch.

Credit must be given, too, to the great screenplay by Daryl Wein (who also directs) and Zoe Lister Jones (who costars as Lola's wonderfully funny and perhaps drug-addicted best friend), which dabbles in cliche but also delivers some fine sentiment and hilarious, original jokes.  There are some pretty fascinating one-liners and sources of humor, ranging from an experimental play called Pogrom! to the effect of an incubator on a baby's genitalia.  It's a sometimes wild ride, and most of the jokes solidly hit their mark, as do the supporting characters, from Lola's technology-obsessed dad (Bill Pullman) to her awkward rocker friend/rebound guy (Hamish Linklater)

If the film fails to live up to its supposed predecessor as the next great indie romantic comedy, it's because it isn't one.  Lola Versus is more like an anti-romcom, maybe even a romantic tragedy that just so happens to be peppered with some great jokes and funny performances.  Nearly everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, and usually because of Lola's own choices and actions.  Lola is something of a manic pixie dream girl, at least at the film's beginning, but that veneer of hipster perfection starts to crack very early in the film, and the ugliness that lies beneath makes for a better (or at least more interesting) film than what the marketing department makes you think you're going to see.