Christian Papierniak’s “Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town,” is a periodically inspired film with a wonderful central performance and a stacked supporting cast. It suffers, at times, from the overconfidence of a bold first-time filmmaker, but Papierniak’s risk-taking instincts pay off more often than not. The film, which is as aggressively episodic as “Pulp Fiction,” is too derivative of Tarantino and his ilk to successfully establish Papierniak’s own directorial voice, but the filmmaker does a more-than-serviceable job while playing in that sandbox.
Mackenzie Davis is Izzy, a washed-up singer who works as a waitress and sleeps on her friend’s couch. As the movie opens, she finds herself waking up in bed with a helicopter pilot, played in a brief but worthwhile cameo by the great Lakeith Stanfield. After a few minutes of playful banter with Stanfield, Izzy leaves her one-night-stand, only to receive the news that her ex-boyfriend Roger (Alex Russell) is getting married that night at the opposite end of Los Angeles.
Izzy is horrified. She still loves Roger and is convinced that they are meant to be together. So she decides to crash the wedding and tell Roger how she feels.
Izzy has no money or mode of transportation, so, true to the film’s title, she spends the remainder of the movie trying to get the fuck across town before her soulmate ties the knot with another woman. She meets a series of colorful characters along the way: Brandon T. Jackson’s shady mechanic, Alia Shawkat’s vagabond drifter, Kyle Kinane’s crazy drug-addict, Haley Joel Osment’s pathetic manchild, and more. Eventually, she reunites with her estranged sister (Carrie Coon) and brother-in-law (Rob Huebel), in a long sequence of familial drama and acoustic-guitar playing.
“Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town” is at its best when it reflects its star’s manic energy. Davis’ performance is brilliant and wild, and the movie suffers whenever it tries to take her down a notch. An early contemplative sequence involving Jackson’s car mechanic, for instance, is a serious low-point for “Izzy.” “Izzy” fun, but it’s not especially attentive. Occasionally, Papierniak makes a play for thoughtfulness; it’s in these moments that you know the film has gone too far off its rails.
Highlights include Izzy soliciting a quick Task Rabbit job from Osment’s character (he refuses: “I asked you to write a break-up letter for my girlfriend!” “I did! And you loved it!” “It didn’t work! She’s still my girlfriend!”), and an extended conversation with Shawkat’s drifter about the nature of fate itself as the “Arrested Development” star breaks in to her friend’s house. At one point, Shawkat uses “Steven Spielberg” to prove that people really do grow up to live their dreams. Izzy replies: “don’t you think he’s in the minority?” Shawkat gets defensive: “I mean, he’s a Jew, but I don’t want to make this like a race issue or whatever.”
Paperniak (who also wrote the film) teeters on the edge of overly-stylized, derivative film speak and what is clearly an original voice in need of cultivation. Lines like “not even the movies are like the movies anymore” or “this is not your fucking Twitter feed” are either funny and original or derivative and stupid, depending on how hard you squint when you look at them.
Virtually every performance in ‘Izzy’ is solid (with the exception of Jackson, whose character/episode adds very little to the film overall), but the movie wouldn’t work at all without Mackenzie Davis at its center. Davis, who is also credited as a producer on the film, brings a brilliant kinetic frenzy to Izzy without which it might be difficult to see past some of the film’s credibility issues. (“Why doesn’t Izzy just take an Uber? Or a bus? I dunno, but Mackenzie Davis is getting so worked up over here that I don’t really have time to think about it!”) But Davis brings more than unbridled wildness to the table – she has a uniquely expressive face that comes in handy toward the end of ‘Izzy’ when she comes face to face with Roger and his new fiance. Davis has a magnetic screen presence and it seems more and more likely every day that she is bound for mega-movie stardom.
“Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town” is a well-made showcase for its talented star. And while it doesn’t quite establish Papierniak’s directorial vision, it does hint at what that might be. It’s a fun hour-and-a-half, inessential but entertaining nonetheless. [B]