Coffee Town

Brad Copeland

BY Kevin ScottPublished Feb 18, 2015

7
There's one in every coffee shop. They set up their laptops in an ideal corner and while away the hours as if it was their own office. But what would happen if their beloved coffee shop were to close? In the grand tradition of such aimless workplace comedies as Clerks and Office Space, the debut feature from the folks behind the College Humor website, Coffee Town, mines its laughs not so much from its hero getting anywhere as wallowing in where he is.
 
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia's Glenn Howerton showcases his callous charm if not exactly his range as Will, a website manager who enjoys the luxury of working inside the cozy confines of Coffee Town. He's visited regularly by his pals Chad (Steve Little), who is faking being a smoker to enjoy the benefits of a smoke break and Gino (Ben Schwartz), who appreciates the power that accompanies being a police officer while ignoring most of the responsibility.
 
The only things Will seemingly has to worry about are dodging Sam (Josh Groban, in an especially funny performance), a pushy barista who loathes Will's loitering ways, and figuring out how to woo a regular (Adrianne Palicki). But when Will learns that Coffee Town is set to be transformed into a bistro, he decides to stage a robbery to convince the powers-that-be that it's located in a bad neighbourhood.
 
Benefitting greatly from a talented cast, writer-director Brad Copeland displays a sense of humour that thankfully leans more towards his previous work writing on Arrested Development (good) than Wild Hogs (not-so-good). There's a sequence that pays homage to the climactic dance scene in '80s BMX classic Rad and a memorable role for Josh Perry, an actor with Down's Syndrome who brings the same infectious energy that he did to his web series, Retarded Policeman.
 
Aside from a solitary deleted scene in which Chad and Gino give each other lie detector tests to determine which of them ate a ham sandwich, there aren't many supplemental features included on the disc. Fortunately, the commentary track with Copeland, Howerton and Schwartz nearly makes up for the lack of extras. Schwartz does his part to avoid too many awkward silences by riffing on a wide array of topics, Copeland reveals that many of his jokes were ones that were rejected from Arrested Development and Howerton marvels at how a single tracking shot is more elaborate than anything attempted on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

(Shout! Factory)

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