Written and directed by Julian Berger, six couples fresh out of college face the ups and downs of young love in Los Angeles. Starring: Julian Berger, Adriana Hinojosa, Nick Petroccione, Hudson Klass, Marie Zolezzi, Jake Orozco Herman, Isabella Dake, Jake Marlow, Gloria Ines, Quentin Montoya, Danielle Ferroni, Matthew Wunsch, Jay Wilder and Martina Sanders.
Jumping into Real Couples, you’re immediately hit with one of the classic couple arguments: were you a little too affectionate with that one close friend? It’s jealousy, envy, insecurity, immaturity and more, all the things that go along with being in a relationship in your early twenties. That’s exactly what Julian Berger is attempting to capture with Real Couples, everyday experiences, conflict, gossip, friendship, love, sex and romance in all of its messiness.
Berger crafts a relatable adventure, hopping around from one friend to the next, who’s seeing who, who was seeing that person but is now seeing their friend. The way that he intersects the stories and lives of the characters is really well done. His writing has a good sense of humour, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, you can feel an awareness of the ridiculous nature of young men trying to traverse the romantic landscape and bumbling, fumbling, stumbling as they go.
It’s a simple concept and it works, and it’s complemented by the 1990s style to Berger’s direction and the cinematography from Noah Herndon. Throwing it back to the days of films like Reality Bites, but also dipping into a modernised, toned down mumblecore, less focus on the quirks and fast dialogue, more on the natural side of things. It’s paced well and there’s a good awkwardness to the atmosphere that manages to balance itself well to not fall into cringeworthy territory, which definitely would have hampered Real Couples.
Part of keeping things organic and moving in a way that’s relatable is certainly down to the cast, this is unquestionably an ensemble affair, and they all have something to bring to the table. Each of them creates individual personalities but at the same time make them all feel like two sides of the same coin. They each relate to one another, and they also feel like familiar personalities, at one point or another in time, viewers will have very likely known people exactly like all of those you see here. There’s no real standout, which is far from a negative but actually speaks to how well each of the cast play off of each other.
Real Couples is not about the story or the destination, it’s simply following couples as they go through all the familiar motions of young romance. It’s messy and captures the classic reckless, impatient immature personas of young men in their early twenties. It does at times feel like it’s going too far in on the male perspective, it would have been nice to balance it out a bit more with the women’s view. It is also an intentionally simple concept, so if you don’t enjoy their bumbling romantic antics and conflicts, you might not get a lot out of it. However, it’s well put together, you can see the vision, it’s shot well, it intersects the characters’ lives in a great way with solid pacing, and it has a good sense of humour.
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