Butler's Cinema Scene

Mackenzie Davis

“IZZY GETS THE FUCK ACROSS TOWN”  My rating: C

86minutes | No MPAA rating

Its title suggests that “Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town” will be a veritable cornucopia of attitude.

If only.

Having heard that Christian Papierniak’s feature debut was about a young woman desperately making her way across Los Angeles to a rendezvous with destiny, I anticipated something along the lines of Tom Tykwer’s “Run, Lola, Run” or perhaps Sean Baker’s “Tangerine.”

In the end, though, “Izzy…” lacks the manic energy or unrelenting forward momentum of those two minor classics.  In fact, it’s a bit of a drag.

Izzy (Mackenzie Davis) awakens in a stranger’s bed after what is presumed to be night of heavy action. She remembers nothing of how she got here. Her items of discarded clothing, when she collects them, consist of a short white dinner jacket (badly stained with red wine…or something worse), dress shirt, bowtie and black slacks.

Izzy apparently works for a catering service and had a very bad day.  Her new day isn’t much better.

She discovers on Instagram that her most recent boyfriend, Roger, is having a party that very night to announce his engagement to Izzy’s best friend, Whitney. Our girl sees her one chance at true love circling the crapper and decides to get across the city to stop the festivities before all is lost.

She returns to the home of her friends Casey (Meghan Lennox) and Tom (Sheldon Bailey), who have been allowing Izzy to crash on their couch.  Except that now they’re sick of her shenanigans and are kicking her out.

Mackenzie Davis, Haley Joel Osment

She goes to the backyard mechanic (Brandon T. Jackson) who has been working on her car for two weeks, but is told he’s still awaiting vital parts.

Lacking cab or bus fare, she takes off on a  borrowed/stolen bicycle.

Along the way she drops in on her befuddled pal Walt (Haley Joel Osment), and catches a ride with his current squeeze, Agatha (Alia Shawkat).

She spends some time at the home of her somewhat estranged sister, Virginia (Carrie Coon), where the two siblings treat party guests to a musical number (the film’s highlight).

Eventually Izzy  makes it to the engagement party where she pleads her case to Roger (Alex Russell) and disses his intended (Sarah Goldberg).

Papierniak’s screenplay is never as clever as it thinks it is; conversations which should pop with irony, anger or hilarity just dribble out ineffectually.

Moreover, Izzy is a borderline obnoxious heroine…self-centered, pushy, unattractively desperate. Which is not necessarily a slam against Davis, a young actress who has shone in a variety of recent roles (“The Martian,” “Tully,” “Blade Runner 2049”). Here she’s just not given much to work with.

| Robert W. Butler