Rich Man’s Humpday: a tale of bravado and bromance, but Swingers comes in the easier-to-swallow gel capsule

★★★☆☆

Swingers, as most of you probably already know, is Jon Favreau’s 1996 film debut. It stars Favreau and Vince Vaughn as two struggling entertainers (Favreau is a standup comedian, Vaughn is an actor) living in early 90s Hollywood. While the film helped launch the careers of two Hollywood heavyweights, it might be more notable for giving birth to the phrase ‘Vegas, Baby!’ That’s the legacy of this film, and that legacy is something I find incredibly confusing.

This film was honored at the Spike TV’s Guy Choice Awards, which helps reinforce my puzzlement. Vaughn’s character, Trent, is a hyper alpha male who uses phrases like ‘you’re so money’ and constantly refers to everyone as ‘baby’. Trent is a character I hated through most of this movie. Favreau plays Mike, a beta male nursing a broken heart in all the worst possible ways. Throughout the movie, Trent tries to help Mike get over his girlfriend by training him to act like an alpha. The film has a look reminiscent of early Linklater movies, and Vaughn’s bravado and swagger jump off the screen in sharp contrast to the film’s style.  It is mumblecore for jocks. Trent feels out of place in the soft world Favreau presents us with.

This is where I think Favreau’s message got a little muddled. I grew to hate Trent, and Mike’s other alpha male friends (including pre-Office Space Ron Livingston!), very early on in the film. But Trent reveals himself to be a good friend and all of his advice pays of for Mike. It feels like the film is both a wish fulfillment and an indictment. The moment I lost how I thought I felt about the movie comes when one of Mike and Trent’s friends gets too aggressive with a group of strangers and lashes out at Mike for calling him on it. Trent steps in and shows his genuine affection for Mike. This scene was apparently added by Vaughn in an attempt to humanize the character of Trent and it works wonderfully. But without it, I may have gotten a more clear message. Originally, I thought the film was Favreau’s way of highlighting the parts of the LA scene that he hated. But, as the film progressed, I started to wonder if this was just a movie about Favreau’s life. I kept bouncing between these two ideas until I grew tired of trying to figure out some hidden meaning behind all of Trent’s hair gel and soon-to-be ironic catchphrases.

It’s should be obvious to you by now that I did not like Trent. But, it was clear that Mike did. Trent and Mike should go down as one of the great bromances of cinema history. I have a big soft spot for deep platonic relationships in stories. Whether it’s Seth and Evan in Superbad, Woodrow and Aiden in Bellflower, or even Enid and Rebcca in Ghost World, these relationships take a lot of skill to pull off because sex can’t be leaned on as a crutch. You can’t have the characters kiss to show a turning point in their relationship, instead it all happens in these small human moments. Add another level of difficulty when the characters are already established best friends at the beginning of the film, because you lose another easy story hook.

Trent and Mike have a real human friendship. They mock each other and support each other. They have other relationships outside the confines of their friendship. Trent goes out of his way for Mike time and time again. Mike puts up with Trent. Their relationship made an otherwise lackluster movie memorable for me. Swingers is worth a watch just to see the back and forth of these guys as they exchange jabs to get through the struggle of trying to make it in LA.