'TABLE 19'..........FEAR THE WALKING WED.......

Table 19 (2017)   At the very least, we admire this movie's cheeky ambition.......

              It aspires to be both a make-you-squirm Mumblecore independent film and a crowd pleasing rom-com........ at the same time.

              All the tropes from those two genres constantly collide throughout. For the benefit of the rom-com crowd, the film exaggerates its characters personality flaws to cartoonish levels. For the mumblecore lovers, everybody's sure to say or do the most excruciatingly wrong thing at the wrong moment......

             This film never fully makes up its mind whether it wants us to embrace these people or make us shudder at our close proximity to them for 90 minutes

              Damned good idea for a premise though........from experience, the BQ can relate to sitting at the 'misfit' table at a wedding reception.......where the bride conveniently dumps all the people who, for one odd reason or another, don't conveniently fall into the category of 'friends and family'......

              A better group of filmmakers than this bunch might have made a more painful, but far more incisive examination of these tablemates and their messy, unhappy lives.

              But the actors here labor under the flimsy constructs of the script, forcing them to go for the gags first.......and then turning them into some kind of half-assed variation of The Breakfast Club.....

              A few of them rise above it.......particularly Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson as a bickering middle aged couple, trading all the sour quips that come with a crumbling marriage.

              Other aren't so lucky, especially Stephen Merchant as an oddball parolee and Tony Revolori as a horny teen nerd.  Purely stick figures......refugees from a 'Saturday Night Live' skit....

              As for Anna Kendrick and June Squibb, they stay firmly in their comfort zones.......playing, respectively, the vulnerable cutie-patootie and the feisty old bag.

              We can't deny the film's scattered with random entertaining moments, but this is such a fish-nor-fowl movie, you end up wondering exactly who it was made for. The Sundance crowd would probably turn their noses up at the rom-com pandering.........and a Multiplex crowd would have little patience for the uncomfortable, mean spirited, Indie meanderings.....

               2 stars (**).......don't RSVP to this wedding.  To quote a character from "Li'l Abner", it could stand for Roast Skunk Very Possible........