Bart Got A Room

While the slightly subversive message of settling for less in life is a nice twist on a familiar theme, very little about Bart Got a Room remains memorable after the credits roll. Some requisite film festival quirkiness and idiosyncratic secondary characters give it that indie vibe critics often latch onto, but it's all incredibly strained, with almost every joke falling flat. Smartly, the premise is kept simple, with Danny (Steven Kaplan) trying to figure out who to take to his prom, despite the availability of his platonic friend Camille (Alia Shawkat). It's not played in the typical teen rom-com style; rather, it is about Danny's search for passion and "something more" than what life is handing him, which is mirrored appropriately with his recently divorced parents' (William H. Macy, Cheryl Hines) similar struggle. The problem here isn't structure and message, as writer/director Brian Hecker seems to have a pretty good grasp on that, rather it is the erroneous gags and protagonist likeability that flounder. While the zaftig hooker sequence is briefly amusing, concatenations with William H. Macy making sex noises to test household coital audibility feel obligatory, rather than organic. In addition, Danny is kind of shallow and stupid, which makes it hard to give a shit about whether or not he finds someone to go to the prom with. Then again, perhaps there is an audience out there who identifies with characters that genuinely don't seem to care about other people or how they might react to a given scenario. Call it sociopath light. Included with the DVD is a pop-up factoid supplement that is actually a clever twist on the whole commentary thing, despite the fact that most of the trivia is boring production facts and cast anecdotes.